SOURCE: "From the Méditations to the Harmonies," in Lamartine, Twayne Publishers, 1973, pp. 20-40.

An American educator and critic, Lombard is the author of French Romanticism on the Frontier (1972) and a study of the French polemical writer Joseph de Maistre. In the following excerpt, Lombard provides an overview of Lamartine's poetic works through Harmonies poétiques et religieuses and examines the evolution of his religious thought.

The Méditations poétiques was published in March, 1820, by Didot. Twenty-four poems made up the collection whose contents justified the title. From the first poem, "L'Isolement" to the last, "La Poésie sacrée," a general plan was discernible. Starting on a reflective tone, the work depicted various stages of religious feelings and attitudes and ended in a hymn of praise. Lamartine preached to the skeptical Byron, underwent momentary doubts followed by a rebirth of faith, presented his own version of...