Adrianna M. Paliyenko is Arnold Bernhard Professor in Arts and Humanities at Colby College. She is the author of Genius Envy: Women Shaping French Poetic History, 1801–1900 and the editor of volumes on nineteenth-century French women writers Madame A. Cashin, Anaïs Ségalas, Marie Krysinska, and Louisa Siefert.

• A Note About the TranslatorAcknowledgmentsReading Les Stoïques AnewTHE STOICS (1870)Dédicace / DedicationLe Départ / LeavingAu large / At SeaSoupir / SighsImmortalité / ImmortalityLune d’avril / April MoonJour tombant / Dying DayBonheur / HappinessLa Combe / The ValleyAutomnales / AutumnaliaSoir d’hiver / Winter EveLes Vieilles Gens / The Old Folks“Tous les rires d’enfant ont les mêmes dents blanches . . .” / “The same white gleam in all children’s laughter . . .”“Il sera grand & fort, il est déjà si tendre . . .” / “Tall and strong will he be, so gentle too . . .”“Pour ce petit enfant tant d’espoirs & d’alarmes . . .” / “For this babe, so much hope, so many fears . . .”“Ce soir, quand la ville engourdie . . .” / “This evening, when the town, chilled numb . . .”“Car, ô pauvres parents navrés . . .” / “For, O poor parents, when child dies . . .”Au long des quais / Along the EmbankmentsLe Premier Froid / The First ChillÀ ce qui n’est plus / For What Exists No More“L’orage a passé; mais les flots sont durs . . .” / “The storm is past; still, the waves brutally . . .”Sotto voce / Sotto voceChanson triste / Sad Song“Et je pense à la mort, & toujours cette idée . . .” / “And so I think of death; ever that thought . . .”Temps perdu / Time Lost“La tristesse a vaincu, je souffre & je me tais . . .” / “Sadness has won, silent my suffering . . .”Promenade d’automne / Autumn Stroll“Jadis enfant joyeuse & folle . . .” / “A child was I, gay, undeterred . . .”“Ô privilèges saints que Dieu m’accorde encor . . .” / “O sacred favors God yet grants to me . . .”“Inutile! ce mot pèse sur bien des fronts . . .” / “‘Useless’? Word that weighs hard on many a brow . . .”“L’amour! un mot encor, mais sublime & sauvage . . .” / “‘Love’! Simple word . . . One that—savage, sublime . . .”“Un cimetière aux champs est chose rassurante . . .” / “A country graveyard comforting appears . . .”“Je ne puis feuilleter mes livres, mon trésor . . .” / “Scarce can I leaf through treasured books, than there . . .”“C’est vrai, j’ai peu d’égards aux vains regrets d’autrui . . .” / “True it is, I care little for the ills . . .”Sur la première page de Joseph Delorme / On the Title Page of Joseph DelormeLa Divine Tragédie / The Divine TragedyLe Sacrifice d’Abraham / Abraham’s Sacrifice“Le ciel est sombre, il pleut, &, la tête lassée . . .” / “The sky is dark with rain. My brow, distraught . . .”La Pierre d’attente / Marianne’s Bust“À l’honneur du combat qu’importe la victoire . . .” / “What matters victory to combat’s course . . .”“Ô morts qui ressemblez à des apothéoses . . .” / “O you, apotheosis-like dead souls . . .”“Quand Jésus s’en allait de bourgade en bourgade . . .” / “When Jesus went from town to town . . .”Épilogue / EpilogueAppendix: Selected Pages from Louisa Siefert’s PapersNotesBibliographyIndex of PoemsGeneral Index

“This edition of Les Stoïques makes an important literary work accessible to audiences of varying levels of French and English and advances our knowledge of nineteenth-century poetry in important ways. In particular, it reconstitutes the original context in which Siefert wrote and the response her work received within poetic circles and within her world.”—Mary Rice-DeFosse Women in French Studies