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- François de Malherbe - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)
(1555-1628). The French poet Francois de Malherbe is known for his criticism of the conceits of the poetic schools that preceded him. He condemned the lighter, more emotional and ornamental style of these poets, preferring instead a serious tone and ordinary language. He stressed the superiority of clear, precise, grammatically correct poetry that followed a rigid metrical structure. His rules of poetry influenced French verse until the 1800s. Although Malherbe never published his views on poetry, they survive by means of his letters and in marginal notations written in a book of poems by Philippe Desportes, one of the contemporaries whom he criticized.