José María Heredia

José María Heredia (1842-1905), French poet, born near Santiago de Cuba, Cuba, and educated in Havana and Paris. Heredia remained in France after 1861, writing poetry that was greatly influenced by the Parnassians, a school of French poets who advocated impersonality and a concentration on form in their works. In 1893, he published Trophies (translated 1963), a collection of 118 sonnets and a few other poems divided into five groups, four devoted to the history of the world from Hellenistic times to the Renaissance and the last on nature and the dream. In these poems, Heredia presents dramatic moments with objectivity, avoiding all personal comment and all philosophical implications. His technical brilliance made him the acknowledged master of the French sonnet, and he was elected to the French Academy in 1894.