[Jasmin: Barber by Samuel Smiles]@TWC D-Link book
Jasmin: Barber

CHAPTER VI
18/26

If Agen was renowned as 'the eye of Guienne,' Jasmin was certainly the greatest poet who had ever written in the pure patois of Agen." Sainte-Beuve also said of Jasmin that he was "invariably sober." And Jasmin said of himself, "I have learned that in moments of heat and emotion we are all eloquent and laconic, alike in speech and action--unconscious poets in fact; and I have also learned that it is possible for a muse to become all this willingly, and by dint of patient toil." Another of his supplementary poems consisted of a dialogue between Ramoun, a soldier of the Old Guard, and Mathiou, a peasant.

It is of a political cast, and Jasmin did not shine in politics.

He was, however, always a patriot, whether under the Empire, the Monarchy, or the Republic.

He loved France above all things, while he entertained the warmest affection for his native province.

If Jasmin had published his volume in classical French he might have been lost amidst a crowd of rhymers; but as he published the work in his native dialect, he became forthwith distinguished in his neighbourhood, and was ever after known as the Gascon poet.
Nor did he long remain unknown beyond the district in which he lived.
When his second volume appeared in 1835, with a preface by M.Baze, an advocate of the Royal Court of Agen, it created considerable excitement, not only at Bordeaux and Toulouse, but also at Paris, the centre of the literature, science, and fine arts of France.


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