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Position:Home>Poetry> French Poems?Question:I'm looking for some well known classic french poems. Anyone know any? Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I'm looking for some well known classic french poems. Anyone know any? It's me! The fairy princess! You don't say if you need them in French or in English. Well known, classic French: it means a lot. TD's choice is good: Victor Hugo is considered one of the greatest. Jacques Prévert is 20th century: all children study his poetry at school. He is good but not one of the best. I would advise you to look at Charles Baudelaire, anything from The Flowers of Evil: http://fleursdumal.org/toc_1861.php (French and English texts). Look at The Albatross or Hair, and many others... Also: Verlaine. Another bilingual site. The poems are very famous: http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chica... If you want older poetry, look at Ronsard, famous French Renaissance poet: http://www.lepg.org/ronsard.htm ***** THE POOR CHILDREN by Victor Hugo AKE heed of this small child of earth; He is great; he hath in him God most high. Children before their fleshly birth Are lights alive in the blue sky. In our light bitter world of wrong They come; God gives us them awhile. His speech is in their stammering tongue, And his forgiveness in their smile. Their sweet light rests upon our eyes. Alas! their right to joy is plain. If they are hungry Paradise Weeps, and, if cold, Heaven thrills with pain. The want that saps their sinless flower Speaks judgment on sin's ministers. Man holds an angel in his power. Ah! deep in Heaven what thunder stirs, When God seeks out these tender things Whom in the shadow where we sleep He sends us clothed about with wings, And finds them ragged babes that weep! ***** English translation by Algernon Charles Swinburne. The following poem has been in all three French textbooks I've had, and I had to memorize and recite it for one of my French classes. It's a poem by Jacques Prévert. I hope this helps! (If you want the translated version, just google "dejeuner du matin english.") Déjeuner du matin Il a mis le café Dans la tasse Il a mis le lait Dans la tasse de café Il a mis le sucre Dans le café au lait Avec la petite cuiller Il a tourné Il a bu le café au lait Et il a reposé la tasse Sans me parler Il a allumé Une cigarette Il a fait des ronds Avec la fumée Il a mis les cendres Dans le cendrier Sans me parler Sans me regarder Il s'est levé Il a mis Son chapeau sur sa tête Il a mis son manteau de pluie Parce qu'il pleuvait Et il est parti Sous la pluie Sans une parole Sans me regarder Et moi j'ai pris Ma tête dans ma main Et j'ai pleuré |