Literary History of the Troubadours

original: "DISCOURS"; here meaning a formal "Discourse" or introductory essay.

...engraves itself better in the memory. A single example is enough, and such an example does not wait long to appear, for verse to become—even in a tribe without laws—the language of passionate nature: poets are always formed there, and the multitude serves as their echo.

A rustic simplicity, joined with vivid and sometimes sublime imagery, characterizes most of these unformed productions. The forests of America, the wild mountains of Scotland, and the frozen deserts of Iceland The author likely refers to the oral traditions of Native Americans, the "Ossianic" poetry then popular in Europe, and the Norse Sagas or Eddas. have seen the birth of fruits of genius which still astonish us today. Minds too confined within the limits of formal art—not reflecting at all upon the fertile energy of nature—find it difficult to conceive that such productions could have emerged from the heart of barbarism and ignorance. It is nonetheless the work of nature. As soon as the soul is deeply moved...

poetry, nature, genius, America, Scotland, Iceland, poets, barbarism, ignorance