The theme of solitude in Louise Colet’s poetry

The aim of the research is to provide a typological description of Louise Colet’s poetry by addressing the theme of solitude, which is of paramount importance to the poetess. Based on an analysis of works on this theme across all her poetic collections, the article identifies the most characteristic features of Colet’s poetic world as well as significant aspects of her poetics. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the fact that, for the first time, the poetess’s oeuvre is examined through a specifically poetological lens with the goal of incorporating it into the typology of the French “minor Romantics”. Furthermore, the study is conducted relying on a central, representative theme (thesaurus-based selection), which allows for the exclusion of peripheral material (dedications, political texts) and thus prevents the “blurring” of the results’ distinctness. As a result of the study, it was established that Louise Colet’s poetry represents a formation largely characteristic of the late Romantic era, in which the features of Romantic and Realistic methods are intertwined, with a noticeable predominance of the latter. Regarding the modality of the works, many are distinguished by a significant gender emphasis (first-person lyrics highlight a characteristically female perspective on phenomena, while portrait poems and epics primarily depict female characters). In purely technical terms, Colet’s poetry is not innovative, but in its basic parameters, it is consistent with the average standards for poetic texts of the Romantic era.