The Christian Sappho: Mourning Albertine in Marceline Desbordes-Valmore’s “Le Mal Du Pays”

Abstract

In this paper I propose a close reading of Marceline Desbordes-Valmore’s beautiful and undervalued poem, “Le Mal du pays,” with particular focus on the interweaving of the “cradle and tomb” motifs, “le berceau et le tombeau” underlined by Gilbert Durand in his Structures anthropologiques de l’imaginaire: “the earth becomes a magic and benevolent cradle because (she) is the final resting place.” (270) Within the framework of passionate mourning for a lost woman friend, Valmore’s poem probes elegiac themes of loss, transcendence and reconciliation through images of water, cleansing, darkness and starlight. What distinguishes this poem from many other elegies is the poet’s imaginative questioning of the roots of humanity’s spiritual identity: birth is seen as tragic, in a manner which anticipates Robert Graves’ disturbing poem, “Children of Darkness.” Whereas Graves’ final lyric closes on a note of despair, “We loathe to gaze upon the sun,” Valmore universalizes her responses with evocations of “les feux blancs d’une étoile” with an emotional depth and authenticity which provides evidence for Proust’s famous dictum that “les idées nous viennent comme les succédanés du chagrin.” I also suggest some possibilities with respect to Valmore’s influence on Proust’s creation of Albertine with reference both to “Le Mal du pays” and to an extract from Valmore’s correspondence which may lead us to reconsider Montesquieu’s paradoxical and challenging description of Marceline Valmore as the “Christian Sappho.”