Nicolas-Germain Léonard

Nicolas-Germain Léonard (16 March 1744 – 26 January 1793) was a poet and one of Guadeloupe's first writers.

Léonard was born in Guadeloupe, but spent most of his life in France, travelling back and forth frequently. He died in Nantes, aged 48.

O lovely place! O Happy Land! O France, sanctuary of the fine arts! I bewail the people whose fate distances them so far from you

They will come, those Days of Darkness, Where the heavy Finger of Age Will cover the Images of my Spring With the Veil of Death.

The French minister Chauvelin was interested in Léonard's poetry and appointed him (diplomat) at Liège. There Léonard wrote "" (1783), a popular romance that was translated into English and Italian. In 1787, he published the fourth edition of his work in three volumes. His work would later attract literary critic Charles-Augustin Sainte-Beuve.