Its different curricula lead to the following French & European degrees :
Academic activities and industrial applied research are performed mainly in French and English languages. Students from a dozen of nationalities participate to the different curricula at SupOptique.
Research activities at SupOptique relate to the following topics:
Mary Sidney
Mary Sidney (1561-1621) was an English poet. She was the sister of more famous poet Philip Sidney.
Mary Sidney was the daughter of Henry Sidney and Mary Dudley. She was born on 27 October 1561 at Tickenhall near Bewdley in Worcestershire. She was well educated, which was unusual for a girl at the time. She knew French, Italian, Latin and Greek. When she was fifteen, she married Henry Herbert, Earl of Pembroke. Thus she became Countess of Pembroke. She had four children, Katherine, Anne, William and Philip. She died of smallpox in London on 25 September 1621. She is buried in the cathedral in Salisbury.
Mary Sidney was a poet and translator. She translated 107 Psalms, using 128 different verse forms. She wrote also the poem for her brother, named "To the Angel Spirit of the Most Excellent Sir Philip Sidney". She is said to have been the most important woman poet in 16th century England save the queen.
Vladimír Holan
Vladimír Holan (1905-1980) was a Czech poet.
Vladimír Holan was born in 1905 in Prague. He got his high-school certificate in 1926 and started to study law. However, he was not much interested in it and left the university quickly. He worked in an office and after some years abandoned it because of ill health.
In 1926 Holan published his first book of poetry named "Blouznivý vějíř" ("A Thoughtful Fan"). The poet himself was not much pleased with the book. In 1930 he published another book which was more successful, named "Triumf smrti" ("The Triumph of Death"). Many other books followed that. The most important work by Holan is "Noc s Hamletem" ("A night with Hamlet"). Holan wrote poems till 1977 when his only daughter died. After it he wrote nothing more. Holan was awarded many times and nominated for Nobel prize. The poet died in Prague in 1980. He was buried at Olšany Cemetery in Prague.
Holan's poems are different and usually regarded as difficult. The poems are full of symbols and images that can be understood in different ways. He used classical verse forms and free verse as well. He is also known to have employed alliteration and puns. Holan was also a translator. He translated European literature into Czech.
Iambic pentameter
Iambic pentameter is a kind of verse. It is the most common kind of verse in English literature.
The two words seem difficult, because the words are Greek. "Pentameter" means "consisting of five measures" and "iambic" "consisting of iambs".
The rhythm which words make in the line is measured in small groups of syllables called "feet". The word "iambic" refers to the type of foot that is used, known as the "iamb". This is an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. The word "pentameter" indicates that a line has five of these "feet".
In theory every line is composed of ten syllables and have five stresses. Stresses fall on the second, the fourth, the sixth, the eighth and the tenth syllable. This is marked with two signs. The sign "x" stands for a syllable with no stress, and the sign "/" stands for a syllable with stress. So a line of iambic pentameter is:
In real poems lines have often an extra syllable at the end and sometimes lack the first unaccented syllable. A line can be divided in five units that are called "feet". The unit x / is called an "iamb" or "iambic foot". Sometimes the pattern is changed. First foot can be reversed: / x x / x / x / x /.
When iambic pentameter is unrhymed it is called blank verse. Blank verse was introduced into English poetry by Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey. Thomas Kyd used it in his "The Spanish Tragedy".
There are no rhymes in blank verse, but alliteration often occurs in it, for example "prime and pride".
William Shakespeare's dramas are written chiefly in blank verse. The first line of the famous Hamlet's monologue is an example:
John Milton used blank verse in Paradise Lost. Many other poets (for example Edwin Atherstone, John Fitchett, Alfred Tennyson, Robert Browning and Matthew Arnold employed it long poems. John Fitchett's "King Alfred" is perhaps the longest epic poem written in blank verse. It consists of more than 130 000 lines. But Alexander Pope wrote iambic pentameter with rhymes. One line rhymes with the next. It is called heroic couplet.
Dramatic monologues are usually written in blank verse. Good examples are Tennyson's "St Simeon Stylites" and "Ulysses" or Browning's "The Ring and the Book". Robert Frost wrote similar poems in the United States.
Lines of iambic pentameter can be set also into stanzas. An example of a stanza is rhyme royal that consists of seven lines and rhymes ababbcc. It was used by Emma Lazarus in the poem "Sympathy" from the sequence "Epochs".
Iambic pentameter is used also in English sonnets.
The rhythm of iambic pentameter is close to the rhythm of everyday English speech. Iambic pentameter is common in German literature, too. This example is from "The Flamingos" by Rainer Maria Rilke:
John Fitchett
John Fitchett (1776-1838) was an English poet.
John Fitchett was born on 21 September 1776. He became an orphan very early. He studied law and became an attorney. He lived in Warrington, England. In 1796 he published his first work named "Bewsey, a Poem". John Fitchett never married. He died on 20 October 1838.
John Fitchett is remembered as the author of an epic poem named "King Alfred". It was published in the years 1841-1842. It took forty years to write it. It tells about English King Alfred the Great, who lived during the 9th century and fought against the Vikings. The poem is a literary curiosity. It is probably the longest poem ever written in English. John Fitchett left it unfinished, but his friend Robert Roscoe finished and published it. "King Alfred" is over 131 000 lines long. 2585 more lines were added by Roscoe.
Currituck County, North Carolina
Currituck County is the northeastern-most county in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2010 census, the population was 23,547. Its county seat is Currituck. The county was formed in 1668 as a precinct of Albemarle County and later gained county status in 1739. The name is "traditionally said to be an Native American word for wild geese; "Coratank"."
Currituck County is included in the Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC Metropolitan Area. It is in the northeastern section of the state and is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean, Currituck Sound, Camden County, Dare County and the state of Virginia. Currituck Court House, mentioned as early as 1755, was the name of the county seat. Today the words "Court House" have been dropped and only Currituck is used as the town name.
Tyrrell County, North Carolina
Tyrrell County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2010 census, the population was 4,407 making it the least populous county in the state. Its county seat is Columbia. The county was created in 1729 as Tyrrell Precinct and gained county status in 1739.
Tyrrell County is included in the Kill Devil Hills, NC Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is also included in the Virginia Beach-Norfolk, VA-NC Combined Statistical Area.
Gates County, North Carolina
Gates County is a small, rural county located in the northeast portion of the U.S. state of North Carolina, on the border with Virginia. As of the 2010 census, the population was 12,197. Its county seat is Gatesville.
Gates County is included in the Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC Metropolitan Statistical Area. It is part of the Albemarle Sound area of the Inner Banks.
United States Revenue Cutter Service