Page:The Cambridge History of American Literature, v4.djvu/183

Louisiana Poets 595 were not numerous. Les Amours d'HeUne, by Jacques de Roquigny, and Rodolphe de Branchelihre by Charles Lemaltre, should at least be mentioned. The works of Dr. Alfred Mercier and Adrien Rouquette were more important. In addition to his Habitation de St. Ybars, Dr. Mercier, who spent a large por- tion of his life in Paris as lawyer, physician, and man of letters, wrote Henoch Jidisias; Lidia, a charming Italian idyl; Le fou de Palerme (1873), a touching Italian love story; La Fille du Pretre (1877), ^^ attack against the celibacy of priests; and Johnelle (1892). Dr. Mercier handled the Creole patois skil- fully, and was altogether highly successful in his fiction. Adrien Rouquette's La Nouvelle Atala (1879), it is hardly neces- sary to say, is an echo of Chateaubriand. The author was a priest who lived among the Indians of Saint-Tammany parish, reading Ossian, Young's Night Thoughts, various French books, and the Bible. Atala is a young girl who loves solitude and retires to the forests, where she has subtle spiritual adventures, and dies swooning. There are numerous mystical digressions in La Nouvelle Atala; Nature, as the guardian of Atala, is handled with all the superstitious reverence of Chateaubriand himself, and often with genuine eloquence. Louisiana, with its luxurious vegetation, its bayous bordered with ancient oaks, its picturesque gulf coast, and its proud race of people, has made many poets, the most fecund of whom, and the most popular, if not the greatest, is Dominique Rouquette, brother of Adrien Rouquette. Dominique went to be educated in Paris; upon his return he took up the life of a hermit, writing sentimental verses, dreaming, and bothering very little about his daily bread. H? was a picturesque figure on the streets of New Orleans as he stroUed along with a great cudgel in one hand and a bouquet of flowers in the other, singing his verses at the top of his voice. His poetry was well received in France, notably by Hugo; it was said that Beranger and Deschamps learned some of his lines by heart. He published two volumes, Les MeschacSbeennes and Fleurs d'Amerique. The following is from the Fleurs: LE SOIR D6ik dans les buissons dort la grive b^tarde: La voix du biicheron, qui dans les bois s'attarde,