One recognises more sincerity in this hymn to all poets, from
Orpheus to Heine, than in "Les Baisers de Pierre"--a clever
imitation of De Musset's stories in verse. Love of art and of the
masters of art, a passion for the figures of old mythology, which
had returned again after their exile in 1830, gaiety, and a revival
of the dexterity of Villon and Marot,--these things are the
characteristics of M. De Banville's genius, and all these were
displayed in "Les Cariatides." Already, too, his preoccupation with
the lighter and more fantastic sort of theatrical amusements shows
itself in lines like these:


"De son lit e baldaquin
Le soleil de son beau globe
Avait l'air d'un arlequin
Etalant sa garde-robe;

"Et sa soeur au front changeant
Mademoiselle la Lune
Avec ses grands yeux d'argent
Regardait la terre brune."


The verse about "the sun in bed," unconsciously Miltonic, is in a
vein of bad taste which has always had seductions for M. De
Banville. He mars a fine later poem on Roncevaux and Roland by a
similar absurdity. The angel Michael is made to stride down the
steps of heaven four at a time, and M. De Banville fancies that this
sort of thing is like the simplicity of the ages of faith.