Abstract EN:

Sidney lanier's poetry is characterized by the principles that composers use in musical composition but adapted to the poetic creation. The aim of this book is twofold : first, to re-introduce into literary criticism a poetical work which has been neglected for over fifty years in the united states as well as in france ; and second, thanks to a musical analysis, to describe the poems which are based on an original writing technique. Two introductory chapters deal with the biographical and psychological aspects of lanier, the man and the poet. Then, the reader is given an in-depth and rigorous analysis of lanier's poetical treatise, entitled the science of english verse. The next chapters are about the explanation of lanier's poetical works themselves, the methodology used resting on the principles of musical analysis applied to musical scores. Consequently, the questions deal with the combination of the phonemic sounds within the line and verses, the rhythms, the harmony, the melodies, the juxtaposition of the themes into fugues and the use of the counter-point. Thus lanier's works are described in their purely musical dimensions, the poem becoming a scorepoem.