Biography
French Renaissance poet Pierre de Ronsard was educated at the Collège de Navarre in Paris. He served as a page to the Duke of Orléans and to James V, the king of Scotland. After nearly losing all his hearing in 1541, he studied Greek at the Collège de Coqueret with the esteemed scholar Daurat. He later became the official poet of King Charles IX’s court. Ronsard led a generation of poets, known first as the Brigade and later as Le Pléiade, who sought to bring the values of humanism to French verse.
Ronsard used a variety of received forms and meters to explore themes of romantic love and portraits of royal life. His numerous collections of poetry include Odes (1550), Les Amours (1552), Le Bocage (1554), and La Franciade (1572).
