The Cambridge Introduction to French Poetry is the most up to date and comprehensive survey of French poetry available. The poets discussed - all quoted in the original, followed by an English translation - belong to every period from the eleventh century to the present, and include Francophone authors from areas other than France. The goals of this Introduction are to provide tools for the analysis of French poems, while assessing ever-changing distinctions and hierarchies between verse and prose, forms and genres, and levels of style; and to give a sense of French poetry’s endless quest for self-definition, by examining its ambivalent relations with political realities, philosophical ideas, and the achievements of other arts, notably music and painting. Accessible, wide-ranging and designed specifically for use on courses, this Introduction contains a useful glossary of poetic terms, and will prove invaluable to students and teachers alike.