Love in Contemporary French Children’s Poetry: Between Lyrical Effusion and Argotic Playfulness

Abstract

The theme of love occupies an important place in contemporary French children’s poetry, being present in very different aspects. The best represented one is love between parents and children. Affective vocabulary, diminutives and childish language indicate a strong emotional interaction between mother and child; tropes (metaphors, personifications etc.) express different facets of love. Poets are sometimes inspired by traditional French lullabies. Full of love, poems teach little readers to appreciate their family, their friends, their homeland, nature, animals, and life. Lyricism, however, does not exclude humour and playfulness. Children love to play and to fool around, and to evoke their mischievous behaviour, poets often recur to slang and familiar vocabulary. The mixture of registers adds to the charm of the poems, whereas a wide range of expressive means reflects the diversity of emotions and feelings.