Durand’s lengthy poem begins as one poet invites the other to come away with him to dream.
This invitation includes communion with nature and then, recalling Baudelaire’s “Elévation,”
emphasizes fleeing worldly concerns:
Quand le palmier, sous le vent qui l’effleure,
Agite ses verts rameaux,
Allons ensemble, ô poète! c’est l’heure
De rêver sous les ormeaux!A notre esprit, qui plane solitaire
Dans l’idéal et l’azur,
Qu’importe, ami, cet affreux terre à terre
--Ce monde où tout est obscur? (1-8)Contrary to how others experience ephemeral notions of happiness, these poets willaspire to lasting peace found in metaphysical truths. This introduction, composed of four
quatrains with alternating decasyllabic and heptasyllabic verses, is suddenly followed by a break
in the text and then a change in tone and verse. One of the poets speaks, engaging in a song-like
dialogue with nature:
--- Salut, ô plaines!
O verts gazons!
Fraîches haleines!
Bleus horizons!
Et vous, prairies
Toujours fleuries,
Causons, causons! (17-23)Although the interlocutors in the poem are not directly specified within the text, the longseries of interjections could very well read as an exchange between Durand, Coicou, and finally,
“La voix,” an anonymous voice who speaks at the end of poem. It is presumably Durand, then,
who looks to share the pursuit of poetry with Coicou, a pursuit which begins by seeking
inspiration in nature. Durand, as the more mature poet, takes the lead, composing his own lyrical
verse which will go on to include the gentle winds, idyllic climate, and horizons canvassed with