BANVILLE, THODORE DE

born March 14, 1823, Moulins, France died March 13, 1891, Paris in full tienne-Claude-Jean-Baptiste-Thodore-Faullain de Banville respected French poet of the mid-19th century who was a late disciple of the Romantics, a leader of the Parnassian movement, and an influence on the Symbolists. His first book of verse, Les Cariatides (1842; The Caryatids), owed much to the style and manner of Victor Hugo, but Banville rejected the poor craftsmanship of much French Romantic poetry. His Petit Trait de posie franaise (1872; Little Treatise on French Poetry) shows his interest in the technicalities of versification, of which he became a master. He considered rhyme to be the single most important element in French verse. Following the lead of the critic Charles Sainte-Beuve, who had revived interest in the sonnet, Banville experimented with various fixed forms that had been neglected since the mid-16th centurye.g., the ballade and the rondeau. The chief quality of his poetry is its technical virtuosity, but contemporaries also admired its delicate wit and fantasy. His best known collection is Les Odes funambulesques (1857; Fantastic Odes).