View source for Alexandre Soumet

{{Short description|French poet (1788–1845)}}
[[File:Alexandre Soumet lithographie.jpg|thumb|150px|Alexandre Soumet]]
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'''Alexandre Soumet''' ({{IPA|fr|sumɛ|lang}}; 18 February 1788{{snd}}30 March 1845) was a French [[poet]].

==Biography==
Alexandre Soumet was born at [[Castelnaudary]], ''[[département]]'' of [[Aude]]. His love of poetry began at an early age. He was an admirer of [[Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock|Klopstock]] and [[Friedrich Schiller|Schiller]], then little known in France. Soumet moved to Paris in 1810 and wrote poems in honor of [[Napoleon]] that secured his nomination as ''auditeur'' of the [[Conseil d'État (France)|Conseil d'État]]. His elegy ''La pauvre fille'' appeared in 1814, and two successful tragedies produced in 1822, ''[[Clytemnestre]]'' and ''Saül'', secured his admission to the [[Académie française|Academy]] in 1824. ''Jeanne d'Arc'' (1825) was his most critically acclaimed play. ''Elisabeth de France'' (1828) was a weak imitation of Schiller's ''Don Carlos'' but Soumet's real bent was towards [[epic poetry]]. A poem inspired by Klopstock, ''La divine épopée'', describes the descent of [[Christ]] into [[Hades]].<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Soumet, Alexandre|volume=25|page=437}}</ref>

Soumet's ''Norma, ou L'infanticide'' (''Norma, or The [[Infanticide]]'') was adapted by [[Vincenzo Bellini]] into the well-known [[opera]] ''[[Norma (opera)|Norma]]''.

Under [[Louis XVIII of France|Louis XVIII]] Soumet became librarian of [[Saint-Cloud]], and subsequently was transferred to [[Rambouillet]] and to [[Compiègne]].<ref name="EB1911"/>

He died leaving an unfinished epic on ''Jeanne d'Arc''. His daughter [[Gabrielle Soumet|Gabrielle]] (Mme Beauvain d'Altenheim) collaborated with him in some of his later works.<ref name="EB1911"/>

==References==
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{{Académie française Seat 27}}

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{{EB1911 article with no significant updates}}

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[[Category:1788 births]]
[[Category:1845 deaths]]
[[Category:Burials at Montmartre Cemetery]]
[[Category:French male poets]]
[[Category:19th-century French poets]]
[[Category:19th-century French dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:Members of the Académie Française]]
[[Category:People from Castelnaudary]]
[[Category:19th-century French male writers]]