Abstract: Tristan L’Hermite’s first two collections of writing—Plaintes d’Acante (1633) and Les Amours (1638)—are continuations of sixteenth-century Petrarchism. The work of Pietro Bembo, which sparked this trend, offers thematic kernels that make it possible to consider it as a vehicle for a project of cultural politics giving an essential role to lyric poetry, but also to the poet. This perspective sheds greater light on some of Tristan’s choices in writing and constructing his collections.
