Sonnets for Helen (Masterplots, Revised Second Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Pierre de Ronsard
- First Published: 1578
- Type of Work: Poetry
- Genres: Poetry, Sonnet
- Subjects: Mythology or myths, France or French people, Love or romance, Immortality, Europe or Europeans, Poetry or poets, Beauty, Death or dying, Legends, Gods or goddesses, Fate or fatalism, Sixteenth century, Mortality, Greece or Greek people, Aging
Critical Evaluation:
Hélène de Surgères was the third woman to provide major inspiration for Pierre de Ronsard’s poetry. His first poetic love, Cassandre Saviati, whom he met when he was twenty and she only thirteen, married someone else soon after. Marie Dupin, the peasant girl who was the love of his middle years, was separated from him by death. In his late forties, Ronsard took Hélène as his muse. Much younger than the poet, she was a member of the court of Catherine de Medicis (1519-1589). As Hélène’s fiancé had been killed at war in 1570, Ronsard addressed his...
[The entire page is 2126 words long]
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