Marceline Desbordes-Valmore

Marceline Desbordes-Valmore (1786–1859) was a French poet and novelist whose intensely personal lyric voice helped shape early Romanticism. Born in Douai, she spent part of her youth in the Caribbean during the upheavals of the French Revolutionary era. She first worked as an actress and singer, performing in provincial theatres, before turning increasingly to literature. Her poetry—often centered on love, loss, motherhood, and spiritual longing—was admired for its musicality and emotional directness. She published several collections during her lifetime and also wrote fiction. Desbordes-Valmore’s work later influenced major nineteenth-century poets, and she is now regarded as a distinctive, pioneering female voice in French Romantic poetry.