Magnificent sonnet by Théophile GAUTIER, the impeccable poet.

Théophile GAUTIER (1811-1872)

Signed autograph poem – Sonnet.

One page in-8° on brown paper. Ink bleeds and very light pitting.

July 19, 1866.

Magnificent sonnet by the impeccable poet dedicated to Marguerite Dardenne de la Grangerie.

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Sonnet

She is, in legend, a virgin martyr, 

Who leads on a leash a hydra with tortuous folds.

Near a toothed wheel, holding a lily in his hand.
The Angel of Urbino painted it, and the world admires it.

In the meadows, a flower grows, which in its naive delirium,
The worried lover with her pale fingers
Questions, counting the picked petals
Hanging her soul on the last one she pulls.

Mysteriously, in its satin nest,
Shines a priceless jewel which bears a Latin name
And whose merit the vile flock disdains.

Do not look for the word of the enigma next to it:
Martyrdom, flower, jewel, virtue, perfume, beauty,
All this simply means: Marguerite!

Théophile Gautier

July 19, 1866.

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Gautier dedicated two sonnets To Marguerite (in 1865, then in 1866) which were published jointly in Poésies nouvelles, nouvelles et posthumes by Lemerre in 1890.