Alphonse de Lamartine (1790-1869) was a French poet and politician.
Born into French provincial nobility, he travelled during his youth, and in 1820 he married an Englishwoman, Maria Birch.
He is famous for his partly autobiographical poem, "Le Lac" ("The Lake"), which describes in retrospect the fervent love shared by a couple from the point of view of the bereaved man. Lamartine was masterly in his use of French poetic forms. He was one of very few French literary figures to combine his writing with a political career.\n
