“You Are My Streams”

This article examines the origins and meaning of the metaphor of the Ocean and Streams, by which Pierre de Ronsard was compared to Homer. Dating back to Quintilian, the metaphor had become a topos by the mid-16th century, thanks to the admirers of his talent and his own efforts. Throughout his poetic career, Ronsard presented himself to readers as a classical author, selecting genres and forms, as well as the book presentation of his texts. Following the publication of the four books of La Franciade, the epithet “French Homer” was definitively bestowed upon the poet. This motif appears repeatedly in the posthumous collection Ronsard’s Tomb (1586) compiled by his executor Claude Binet, as well as in the article on Ronsard in Antoine Du Verdier’s Bibliothèque Françoise (1585). With La Franciade, national culture finally had its epic — the last genre lacking to equal the ancient heritage, according to authors of poetic arts in the second half of the sixteenth century. However, Ronsard himself compared his work to the Iliad, but calling it a “novel,” or poetic fiction. He built the narrative around the figure of the protagonist, implicitly orienting himself towards another example: Ariosto’s Orlando furioso

Epithet · Metaphor · Narrative · Poetry · Reflexive pronoun · French Literature and Criticism · Historical and Literary Analyses · Renaissance Literature and Culture