To Alfred Tattet

Addressed to a friend, "To Alfred Tattet" presents itself as a reply in alexandrines rhymed in couplets, in which the poet refuses the posture of the satirist. From the outset, the tone is one of confidence: "No, my dear, thank God!" briskly dismisses the idea of literary revenge for "three words of criticism."

The poem sets two attitudes against each other. On one side, an amused indulgence: the poet consents to "Burn her, in passing, my pen" under the nose of a failing muse, a light image that reduces bad literature to a flash in the pan. On the other, the censuring of fools, which he rejects with a "may heaven preserve me from it!"

The couplet rhymes, without refrain, give the whole piece the air of a sustained conversation, almost of a verse letter. The regularity of the alexandrine supports a thought that unfolds without detour, but the movement remains supple, as if the poet weighed each reason before concluding.

The line "The disgust I have of it would take away my heart" reveals the true stake: it is not the fear of losing, but the refusal to enter a "sad combat" whose very victory would be bitter. Satire here is less forbidden than disavowed, for it presupposes a complacency that the poet rejects.

Thus, this brief poem sketches an ethics of writing: to prefer silence to polemic, elegance to retaliation. True strength, De Musset suggests, consists in not making oneself a satirist, even when the occasion lends itself to it.