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Remy (or Rémi) Belleau (French pronunciation:[ʁemibɛlo]; 1528 – 6 March 1577) was apoet of theFrench Renaissance.[1] He is most known for his paradoxical poems of praise for simple things and his poems about precious stones.
Remy was born inNogent-le-Rotrou. A nobleman (under the tutelage of theLorraine family), he did his studies underMarc Antoine Muret andGeorge Buchanan. As a student, he became friends with the young poetsJean de La Péruse,Étienne Jodelle,Jean de La Taille andPierre de Ronsard and the latter incorporated Remy into the "La Pléiade", a group of revolutionary young poets. Belleau's first published poems wereodes,les Petites Inventions (1556), inspired by the ancient lyric Greek collection attributed toAnacreon and featuring poems of praise for such things as butterflies, oysters, cherries, coral, shadows, turtles. In the 1560s, Belleau tried his hand at a mixed verse and prose form modeled on the Italian pastoralArcadia byJacopo Sannazaro (French translation, 1544): this becameLa Bergerie (1565-1572), in which narration (in prose) is interspersed with poems on love and the countryside. His last work,les Amours et nouveaux Eschanges des Pierres precieuses (1576), is a poetic description of gems and their properties inspired by medieval and renaissancelapidary catalogues. He died inParis on 6 March 1577, and was buried inGrands Augustins.[2]
Remy Belleau was greatly admired by poets in the twentieth century, such asFrancis Ponge.
