Daphnis and Alcimadure by Jean de La Fontaine

Name: Daphnis and Alcimadure
Author: Jean de La Fontaine

The poem addresses Madame de La Mésangère with praise for her tender heart, elevated feelings, wit, and grace, then warns that Love punishes those who scorn him. It tells of Alcimadure, a beautiful but proud and wild maiden who lives according to her own caprice and despises Love’s power. Daphnis, a high-born shepherd, loves her desperately, but she grants him neither look, smile, nor kind word. Driven to despair, Daphnis comes to Alcimadure’s door while she is preparing treasures of flowers for her own natal day. Refused admission, he declares that he had hoped to die before her eyes. He says that after his death his father will leave her his inheritance, including his pasturage and faithful dog, and that his friends will raise a shrine bearing her image among living flowers. Beside it, his own monument will state that he died of love because he could not endure proud Alcimadure’s rejection. Before he can say more, Daphnis receives his fatal stroke and dies. Alcimadure emerges in triumph, scarcely caring for his death despite her attendants’ pleas that she shed tears for him. Still contemptuous of the rosy god, she leads her company in a dance around his image. The statue suddenly falls and crushes her. A voice from a cloud proclaims that all should love, for the unfeeling woman is dead. Daphnis’s shade goes to the Stygian tide, where he is astonished to find Alcimadure’s ghost at his feet. All Erebus wakes to hear the beautiful killer beg pardon from the shepherd she caused to die, confessing that she had been deaf to love.

By Jean de La Fontaine · First published 1693 · Genre: Pastoral Poetry, Mythological Poetry, Tragic Poetry · 1,349 words

First lines

An Imitation Of Theocritus.[1]

[1]: Theocritus, Idyl xxiii.

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Genres

Pastoral Poetry — The poem centers on the shepherd Daphnis, an idealized rural setting of meadows, woods, flowers, and flocks, and consciously imitates Theocritus, a foundational pastoral poet.
Mythological Poetry — Cupid, Cytherea, Erebus, the Styx, and divine supernatural punishment shape the action, placing the story within the conventions of classical mythology.
Tragic Poetry — Daphnis dies from unreturned love, while Alcimadure is fatally punished and reaches the underworld to beg his forgiveness, giving the work a fatal and mournful arc.
Narrative Poetry — The work tells a complete sequence of events through verse: Daphnis's courtship and despair, his death, Alcimadure's punishment, and their encounter in the afterlife.

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Daphnis and Alcimadure is listed on Textopian as a poem by Jean de La Fontaine, dated 1693 CE.

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Work type: Poem
Author: Jean de La Fontaine
Date: 1693 CE
Language: English
Genres: Pastoral Poetry, Mythological Poetry, Tragic Poetry, Narrative Poetry, Love Poetry
Length: 1,349 words
Structure: 1 section, 8 paragraphs
Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)

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