Clement Marot Monument, Cahors, France Stock Image

A beautiful stone carved monument dedicated to Clement Marot. Clément Marot (23 November 1496 – 12 September 1544) was a French poet of the Renaissance period. He was born in Cahors, in the old Quercy province or Lot region, south of France. Below the bust of Marot on the monument, there is part of his poem lEnfer carved out in marble. As a literary figure, Marot was a reformer, who carried his own reform as far as it would go. His early work was in the rhétoriqueur style, the distinguishing characteristics of which are elaborate metre and rhyme, allegoric matter and pedantic language. In his second stage he entirely emancipated himself from this, and became one of the easiest, least affected and most vernacular poets of France. He was very influential to the lighter verse-writers that followed him.