But other influences making for a poetic revival were multiplied. A very important one was the spreading knowledge of other modern literatures, particularly those of England and Germany with their lyric treasures. Presently there began to be a union of efforts for a literary reform, as in the Renaissance, and the Romantic movement began to be defined. Its watchword was freedom in art, and as a reform it was naturally considerably determined by the classicism against which it rebelled. The qualities that it strove to possess were sharply in contrast with those that had distinguished French poetry for two hundred years, if they were not in direct opposition to them: in its matter, breadth and infinite variety took the place of a narrow and sterile nobility--"everything that is in nature is in art"; in its language, directness, strength, vigor, freshness, color, brilliancy, picturesqueness, replaced cold propriety, conventional elegance and trite periphrasis; in its form, melody, variety of rhythm, richness and sonority of rhyme, diversity of stanza structure and flexibility of line were sought and achieved, sometimes at the expense of the old rules. By 1830 the young poets, who were now fairly swarming, exhibited the general romantic coloring very clearly. Almost from the first VICTOR HUGO had been their leader. His earliest volume indeed contained little promise of a literary revolution. But the volume of _Orientales_ (1828) was more than a promise; it held a large measure of fulfilment, and is a landmark in the history of French poetry. The technical qualities of these lyrics were a revelation. They distinctly enlarged the capacity of the language for lyrical expression. There are three other great lyric poets in the generation of 1830: DE VIGNY, DE MUSSET, and GAUTIER. De Vigny annexed to the domain of lyric poetry the province of intellectual passion and a more impersonal and reflecting emotion. De Musset gave to the lyric the most intense and direct accent of personal feeling and made his muse the faithful and responsive echo of his heart. Gautier was an artist in words and laid especial stress on the perfection of form (cf. _l'Art_, p. 190); and it was he especially that the younger poets followed.