With me poetry has been not a purpose, but a passion; and the passions should be held in reverence: they must not — they cannot at will be excited, with an eye to the paltry compensations, or the more paltry commendations, of mankind.
Bio: François de la Noue, called Bras-de-Fer, was one of the Huguenot captains of the 16th century. He was born near Nantes in 1531, of an ancient Breton family.
