Élégies et Sonnets

The sonnets Ronsard wrote for Cassandre, with 16th-century spelling and notes on the variants. The masterpiece of French Renaissance love poetry.

Pierre de Ronsard

The 21 poems Verlaine wrote for his fiancée Mathilde in 1869 and 1870. Short, musical lines, made for reading out loud in French.

Paul Verlaine

Includes Les Nuits, the cycle where Musset turns his breakup with George Sand into poetry, plus poems from 1836 to 1852. The heart of French Romanticism.

Alfred de Musset

Elegies of love and longing by the poet Verlaine called one of the greatest of her time. The 1825 edition, reset by Wikisource with clean text.

Marceline Desbordes-Valmore

The book of Le Pont Mirabeau and La Chanson du Mal-Aimé, where Apollinaire sings of lost loves and modern Paris. A landmark of 20th-century French poetry.

Guillaume Apollinaire