New Light on Maurice de Guérin's Poète-Mage: Recently Recovered Lines of 'Vous m'avez invité . . .

Previously unpublished lines of the poem "Vous m'avez invit . . ." cast new light on an obscure and often misunderstood transitional period in Maurice de Guèrin's life and poetic production, 1832-34. During this time Guèrin was forced to leave his mentor and father-figure, Fèlicitè de Lamennais, as the latter's Breton retreat at La Chênaie was closed, as Mennaisian publications including L'Avenir were shut down, and as Lamennais's seminal work, Paroles d'un croyant, was condemned by papal decree. The fourteen recently recovered lines testify at once to Guèrin's developing vision of the poet as uprooted but heroic magus and also to Guèrin's personal evolution into a less naive, more determined enfant du siècle, a stage that ultimately led to the composition of two remarkable prose poems, "Le Centaure" and "La Bacchante." (JMV)