Crémazie, Octave Joseph

Born Apr. 16, 1827, in Quebec; died Jan. 16, 1879, in Le Havre, France. Canadian poet; founder of French-Canadian poetry.

Crémazie published his first verses in 1854. In 1861 he began publishing Les Soirées Canadiennes, the first literary monthly in French Canada. He emigrated in 1862 to France, where he wrote letters on literature (to Abbot Cagrene and others): Letters and Excerpts From Letters was published in 1886. His Diary of the Siege of Paris depicts events from the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71 and the Paris Commune of 1871. Crémazie began the unfinished narrative poem The Walk of the Three Corpses in France. His patriotic poems “The Banner …,” “Song of an Old Canadian Soldier,” and “Canada” were very popular in Canada.