José-Maria de HEREDIA (1842-1905)
Signed autograph poem – Artemis.
One page in quarto, written in black ink.
Slnd.
A very beautiful sonnet offering many variations on the one published in his collection Les Trophées , in 1893.
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Artemis
The acrid scent of the woods rising from all sides,
Huntress, has swollen your widened nostrils,
And, in your virginal and virile energy,
Throwing your hair back, you depart!
And all day long you make Ortygia resound,
From the mad roar of the raucous leopards
And leaped through the panting orgy
Of the great dogs disemboweled in the scattered red grass.
And, even more, it pleases you, Goddess! that the bramble
tears and that the tooth or the claw sinks
into your glorious arms that the iron has avenged;
For your heart wants to taste this cruel sweetness
, to mingle in your games an immortal purple
with the horrible black blood of slaughtered monsters.
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Considered one of the most illustrious representatives of Parnassus, Heredia published his poetic masterpiece, Les Trophées .
Composed almost exclusively of sonnets, the collection is divided into several evocations on Antiquity, History, Mythologies and Legends.
The collection was a great success, making the work one of the last pinnacles of Parnassian poetry.