r, to
illustrate a peculiar form of poetical melancholy by dwelling on
subjects many of which would have been better left alone, while others
were treated in a manner unsuited to the time. His _Fleurs du Mal_,
therefore, as his chief work is entitled, had to undergo expurgation
before it was allowed to be published, and has never been popular with
the general public. But its best pieces, as well as the best of some
singular _Petits Poemes en Prose_, partly inspired by Louis Bertrand,
have extraordinary merit in the way of delicate poetical suggestion and
a lofty spiritualism. Baudelaire was also a very accomplished critic,
his point of view being less exclusively French than that of almost any
other French writer of the same class. He translated Poe and De Quincey.

[Sidenote: Minor Poets of the Second Romantic Group.]

[Sidenote: Dupont.]

The minor poets of this second Romantic school may again be grouped
together. Charles Coran, a miscellaneous poet of talent, anticipated the
school of which we shall shortly have to give some notice, that of the
_Parnassiens_. Josephin Soulary is remarkable for the extreme beauty of
his sonnets, in devoting himself to which form he anticipated a general
tendency of contemporary poets both English and French. Auguste
Vacquerie, better known as a critic, a dramatist, and a journalist,
began as a lyrical and miscellaneous poet, and achieved some noticeable
work. Gustave Le Vavasseur attempted, not without success, to revive the
vigorous tradition of Norman poetry. Pierre Dupont, better known than
any of these, seemed at one time likely to be a poet of the first rank,
but unfortunately wasted his talent in Bohemian dawdling and disorder.
His songs were the delight of the young generation of 1848, and two of
them, _Le Chant des Ouvriers_ and _Les Boeufs_, are still most
remarkable compositions. Louis Bouilhet (whose best poem is _Melaenis_)
has some resemblance to M. Leconte de Lisle, though he went still
further afield for his subjects. He had no small power, but the defect
of the old descriptive poetry revived in him, and in some of his
contemporaries and followers, the defect necessarily attendant on
forgetfulness of the fact that description by itself, however beautiful
it may be, is not poetry. With these may be mentioned Gustave Nadaud, a
song-writer pure and simple, free from almost any influence of school
literature, a true follower of Beranger, though with much less range,
wit