SOURCE: A conclusion to Ronsard's Ordered Chaos: Visions of Flux and Stability in the Poetry of Pierre de Ronsard, Manchester University Press, 1980, pp. 219-25.

In the following excerpt, Quainton examines the treatment of flux and stability in Ronsard's poetry.

[The] twin concepts of flux and stability represent an important and continuing source of inspiration for Ronsard. These concepts do not merely result in a poetic rejuvenation of certain lyrical commonplaces concerning time's flight, the omnipotence of death and the inconstancy of Fortune, but they have widespread consequences which encompass a diversity of attitudes and perspectives—allegorical, mythological, ethical, philosophical, cosmological, theological and aesthetic. These different visions are not distinct, however, but are interdependent in that they often centre on a common core of preoccupations. These central concerns operate simultaneously on the level of theme, style and structure and frequently find expression in antithetical patterns of rich suggestivity: preservation...