Lebrun, Ponce-Denis Écouchard

(called Lebrun-Pindar). Born Aug. 11, 1729, in Paris; died there Aug. 31, 1807. French poet. Elected to the Académie Française in 1803.

Carrying on the poetic traditions of F. de Malherbe and J.-B. Rousseau, Lebrun wrote “Ode on the Misfortune in Lisbon” (1755), “Ode to Buffon,” “Ode to Voltaire,” and other odes, elegies, and epigrams expressing his antifeudal attitudes. Their intensification just before the French Revolution is reflected in his ode “Kings” (1783) and in “Meditation in Verse Upon the Assembly of Notables” (1787). In the late 18th century, Lebrun became a poet of the revolutionary camp—for example, his “Republican Odes to the French People” (published in 1793) and “Ode to the French.” Later, Lebrun sympathized with the antifeudal aspects of Napoleon Bonaparte’s policies (in “National Ode”).

In Russia, Lebrun’s poetry was valued by A. N. Radishchev, the Decembrists, and A. S. Pushkin. It was translated into Russian by such poets as K. N. Batiushkov, P. A. Viazemskii, and I. I. Dmitriev.