Leconte de Lisle, Charles Marie

Leconte de Lisle, Charles Marie (shärl märē` ləkôNt` də lēl), 1818–94, French poet. His first two books of poetry, Poèmes antiques (1852) and Poèmes et poésies (1855), were immediately successful. It was, however, Poésies barbares (1862; later enlarged as Poèmes barbares, 1872) that established him as the leading figure of the group later to be known as the Parnassians. Anti-Christian and a pessimist, Leconte de Lisle saw death as the only existing reality and drew his inspiration from antiquity. Later works include Les Erinnyes (1872), a verse drama; and Poèmes tragiques (1884). He was elected to the French Academy.