With the appearance of his celebrated poem "Le Drapeau de Carillon" (The Flag of Carillon) in Le Journal de Quebec in 1858, Octave Crémazie was hailed as the national poet of Quebec. The first important poet to emerge in that province, he also became the major representative of French-Canadian romanticism. Attracted both by his poetry and his lively presence, a literary circle--the earliest in Quebec--formed around him. For these reasons Crémazie inspired continued admiration during his lifetime, rising, after his death, to the height of a legendary figure.

Born on 16 April 1827 in Quebec City, he was baptized Claude-Joseph-Olivier Crémazie. In admiration for the bishop of Quebec, Joseph-Octave Plessis, his mother added the name Octave. He was the eleventh of twelve children born to Jacques and Marie-Anne Miville Crémazie. Appropriately for a poet obsessed by ancestors and a heroic past, his grandfather...