SOURCE: "Lamartine," in Westminster Review, October-January, 1836-37, pp. 501-41.

In the following excerpt, a contemporary of Lamartine comments on the themes and style of the poet's works. The essay was signed only with the author's initials, D. N.

The poetry of M. de Lamartine does not properly belong to the department of practical truths. Not but that we may find in his poems traits of real life, such as the epic, dramatic, and philosophic poets present at every page; but these traits are wanting in definiteness, or exaggerated out of all proportion by the habit of idealizing everything, which is the particular turn of mind of M. de Lamartine. The earth, which is the theatre of the life of man—that earth which Dante painted in such sombre colours—resembles, in M. de Lamartine's verses, some planet inhabited by beings more perfect than we, lighted by a softer...