Jammes, Francis

Jammes, Francis (fräNsēs` zhäm), 1868–1938, French poet. He lived most of his life in the Pyrenees. Jammes is usually grouped with the symbolists, but he is distinguished from them by the simplicity and artlessness of his pastoral poetry. De l'angélus de l'aube à l'angélus du soir (1898) brought him wide acclaim. Later works, including Clairières dans le ciel (1906) and Géorgiques Chrétiennes (1911–12), are suffused with Catholic spirit. He also wrote charming stories about rustic people.

---

Jammes, Francis 

Born Dec. 2, 1868, in Tournay; died Nov. 1, 1938, in Hasparren. French poet.

Beginning with his first verse collections (Six Sonnets, 1891, and Birth of a Poet, 1897) Jammes celebrated the French provinces. Many of his books bear the imprint of Catholicism (From the Morning Angelus to the Evening Angelas, 1898; The Mourning of Spring, 1901; The Clearing in the Sky, 1906; and The Mother of God and the Sonnets, 1919). Jammes’ art is imbued with a yearning for the simplicity of everyday life. The cycles Quatrains (written between 1922 and 1925) are remarkable in their poetic quality. Jammes also wrote prose—novels (The Novel About the Hare, 1903, and others) and memoirs (Love, the Muses, and the Chase, 1922, and The Poet’s Caprices, 1923). Jammes was translated into Russian by I. Annenskii, V. Briusov, I. Ehrenburg, B. Livshits, and other writers.

WORKS

Oeuvres choisies. Commentary by R. Mallet. Paris, 1964.
In Russian translation:
Stikhi i proza. Moscow, 1913.
In Ten’derev’ev: Stikhi zarubezhnykh poetov. Translated by I. Ehrenburg. Moscow, 1969.

REFERENCES

Istoriia frantsuzskoi literatury, vol. 3. Moscow, 1959.
Parent, M. F. Jammes. Paris, 1957.
Mallet, R. Le Jammisme. Paris, 1961.

A. D. MIKHAILOV