The Personality of Apollinaire

THE PERSONALITY OF APOLLINAIRE

AS REVEALED IN HIS POETRY 1896-1912

by

ALEXANDER WILLIAM BROWN

B.A. University of British Columbia, Canada, 1983

A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF

THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE DEGREE OF

MASTER OF ARTS

In the Department

of

French

We accept this thesis as conforming

to the required standard

THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

August 198 9

(c) Alexander William Brown, 1989

9f In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the head of my department or by his or her representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission.

Department of

The University of British Columbia Vancouver, Canada

Date

DE-6 (2/88) ii

ABSTRACT

This thesis provides an overview of Apollinaire's personality by reference to his poetry only. The time span is restricted to the productive years 1896 to 1912. Apollinaire's poetic output after 1912 was quite extensive, its inclusion in the analysis would have resulted in an over-long thesis.

Recent research as well as standard material which was found in scattered information has been combined in this analysis.

The thesis is made up of an Introduction which sets forth the methodology of the analysis and discusses the content. The first chapter is a biography covering the entire life of the poet. It provides background information which cannot be obtained by merely reading the poetry. This chapter has been divided into sections corresponding to major changes in his life which had a special effect on the poetry Apollinaire wrote.

The bulk of the thesis (Chapters 2 to 9) is an analysis of the poems which the poet was inspired to write during the selected period. The date or at least the year that Apollinaire was first inspired to write a given poem was an important factor when the aspects of personality were being sought in the process of analysis, consequently the poems have been arranged in date

order as an aid to determination of any changes that would affect his personality and relationships. iii

Many facets of the poet's personality were uncovered. These have been summarised,in the final chapter entitled "Conclusion", into four main divisions:

1. Philosophical attitudes

2. Personality as such

3. Outward way of life

4. Literary and artistic characteristics.

The process of summarization includes references back to the poems which generated the listed observations. The thesis has ranked the following as major personality factors. Self-centred- ness; the bipolar psychosis formerly known as the manic-depres• sive state; the fact that his inspiration worked best when he attempted to exorcise his misery by writing poetry; the dependence on ancient myth and the past as sources of inspiration; the personification of abstract concepts and use of historical figures as actors in his poetry.

Subordinate facets include: willingness to experiment with new forms of poetry; the dabbling in the Occult; the preoccupation with death; the extraordinary eye for detail; the fascination with the inventions of the modern world; the attraction of the elements and the universe as sources of

imagery; the infinite capacity for mystification; the use of

earlier works to flesh out current production; and the ability to produce a humorous line even when in the depths of despair. iv

Inter-personal relationships were identified: Steadfast friendships; a strong sexuality that was often repressed; a latent cruelty often controlled.

Several items not connected directly to personality were a bye-product of the research: for example a 1902 edition of

Baedeker's guide provided information on rail travel in Germany.

A number of paintings were researched: the early paintings in

Cologne museums, the Black Virgin of Czestochowa icon, Repin's painting of the Zaporozhne Cossacks replying tothe Sultan of

Turkey's overtures, Ford Madox Brown's famous painting, "The last of England", Picasso's blue and pink period works. An engraving of Woodstock Palace helped in the analysis of the poem

"Palais". The sport of Ballooning which uses the windrose, provided an explanation for the phrase "Rose des vents". A botan• ical investigation of the Autumn Crocus threw additional light on the "filles de leurs filles" mystery. The "Rose sans epines" proved to be the hellebore or Christmas rose.

The examination of individual poems has provided information about Apollinaire's character and a small contribution to the exegesis of the poems has resulted also. V

CONTENTS

Page

INTRODUCTION ' 1

Chapter I. BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES ON APOLLINAIRE ..12

Childhood and adolescence The early years in Paris Germany, the Rhineland and Annie Playden Entry into the world of Arts and Letters New Directions The years of happiness and stress Literary experimentation during 1912-1914 Apollinaire on active service The final years

II. APOLLINAIRE'S ADOLESCENT POETRY 1896-1899 51

III. THE TURN OF THE CENTURY POEMS 1899-1901 55

IV. THE EARLY YEARS IN PARIS 1899-1901 69

V. GERMANY, THE RHINELAND AND ANNIE PLAYDEN 1901-1902.... .74

VI. ENTRY INTO THE WORLD OF ARTS AND LETTERS 1.1902-1903.10 6

VII. ENTRY INTO THE WORLD OF ARTS AND LETTERS 11.1904-1907.126

VIII. THE YEARS OF HAPPINESS AND STRESS I. 1908-1909 146

IX. THE. YEARS OF HAPPINESS AND STRESS II. 1909-1912 178

CONCLUSION ' 209

BIBLIOGRAPHY 231

INDEX OF POEMS ANALYSED (Arranged alphabetically) 278

INDEX OF POEMS ANALYSED (Arranged by date of composition) 282 vi

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I owe a special debt of gratitude to Professor Dominique

Baudouin of the University of British Columbia, who read the entire manuscript, for his illuminating suggestions and constant encouragement. I am also indebted to Professor Claude Bouygues for his assistance and to Professor Ruth White of the same

University for encouraging me to study French in the first place.

I wish to express my gratitude to the Library Staff particularly the people in the Circulation, Inter-Library Loan and Special Collections departments of the U.B.C library system.

Other acknowledgements go to Ted Powell for his painstaking contribution in converting the data from my word processor into print; to four French scholars for their invaluable books and articles: Michel Decaudin, Philippe Renaud, Madame Marie-Jeanne

Durry and Marcel Adema.

Finally I would like to express my love and admiration to my wife Phyllis whose patience has at last borne fruit.

1989 A.W.B. 1

INTRODUCTION

This thesis is an attempt to present a full portrait of

Apollinaire's personality by a study of the poems from his adolescence until the end of 1912.

The 1912 cut-off has been chosen for three reasons; firstly because most of the aspects of Apollinaire's personality had shown up in his poetry by that date; secondly, Apollinaire, himself, chose a 1912 division between the Alcools and

Ca11i grammes collections of his poetry; and thirdly, because a discussion of the very large number of poems from 1913 onwards,

(seventy-five poems to Louise de Coligny-Chatillon alone!) and their varied nature would result in a thesis at least double the length of the present one.

The presentation is made up of two parts, the first part

(Chapter 1) is a relatively brief biography in which poems will be cited only in the interest of maintaining the flow of narrative. The biography will extend beyond the first thirty-two years up to the poet's untimely death in 1918 at the age of thirty-eight. The second part (Chapters 2-9 and Conclusion) will consist of an analysis of the poems, paying particular 2 attention to aspects of Apollinaire's personality that may be discovered in those poems.

In addition, an extensive bibliography, covering works con• sulted during the preparation of this thesis, has been provided.

The sheer number of Apollinaire's poems creates a daunting task for any would-be analyst; hence a few minor poems composed prior to 1912 have been be left out of this analysis in the interests of economy.

In view of the fact that the present analysis is confined to

Apollinaire's poetry, only occasional references to his fiction can be made. The novella T,e poete assassin^ and its sequel Lfi. cas du brigadier masque c'est-a-dire le poete ressuscite, whose long title opposes its very brevity, belong to the category of fictional biography; such works will only' be mentioned to rein• force observations made in regard to the poetical works or to supplement the biography, without disturbing the flow of narrative.

The length of the divisions in each of the two parts will vary, and the correlation between the poetry chapters and the biography sections will not always be established, owing to the demands of the material presented. There is a difficulty in correlation in that a biography is normally concerned with the appearance of a work before the reading public while the discussion of the. poetry, in this thesis at least, is more

concerned with the moment of inspiration. On the other hand the

corresponding biographical section may be quite short.

Apollinaire's poetic output is divisible into eight broad 3 time frames: the period from 1886 to 1898 distinguished by- assorted juvenilia; the period from 1899 to 1901, which shows symbolist influences; the Rhenish period from 1901 to 1902, when

Annie Playden and Apollinaire were in the Rhineland in the service of Mme De Milhau; the lean period of 1903 to 1907, geographically divisible into the "Paris-London" and "Montmartre" time frames when production tended to dwindle, though there was much variety in whatever was committed to paper; the pivotal year of 1908 when the poet realised the connection between new influences in painting and sculpture and the art of poetry, then the poems of the "Auteuil" period, 1909 to 19121 which reflect the stormy life of the poet during these three years. The next period from 1913 to 1914 saw the publication of the xAlcools' collection, and the appearance of Apollinaire's experimental works such as the early Calligrammes. The final period of 1914 to

1918 comprises Apollinaire's war poems and the love poems addressed to Lou, Madeleine and his wife Jacqueline.

These time frames are the result of the study of several sources. The first volume of Marie-Jeanne Durry's three-volume study, Leroy Breunig's early work, and Philippe Renaud's grouping of Apollinaire's works by periods have been found very useful.2

During the course of research for-the personality aspects of

Apollinaire's poetry several matters unrelated to such aspects were uncovered, mainly in the field of exegesis and explanation of the sometimes complex passages. In view of the interest such passages have generated, it is considered that such items are

worth including, as they often throw some light on Apollinaire's 4 thought processes, his erudition, and interests.

An attempt to describe the personality of Apollinaire was made by Guy Michaud,3 but his views appear to be based on a "post hoc ergo propter hoc" approach and on theories of facial morphology, physical constitution, graphology. and astrology that have since been discredited.

As regards Part I of the thesis: Apollinaire's short and passionate life has attracted many literary historians: Roger

Shattuck, Frances Steegmuller, Margaret Davies, Denis Bordat and

Bernard Veck, and Georges Vergnes are the names of a few of them that come to mind. Roger Shattuck's The Banquet Years is particularly interesting because it provides capsule biographies of several of Apollinaire's contemporaries. The reader is referred to .the bibliography of books about the poet and his works at the end of this paper for further details.

Apollinaire left no autobiography, so one is virtually dependent on the souvenirs, recollections and memoirs of those who came into contact with him, and on the various biographical references in his poetry and fiction. Letters,' notably those written to Madeleine Pages between the 16th of April 1915 and the

16th of September 1916, might be considered to be a diary, but these cover extremely short periods of his life.4 Adema mentions that during this seventeen-month period the volume of

Apollinaire's correspondence was exceptionally heavy.5

Apollinaire lived during an interesting period in French history. The heady brew of scientific discovery, new directions

in painting, sculpture, and dance was fermenting in'the minds of 5 writers and Apollinaire was in the thick of things, regarded by many of the bright young men and women as their leader.

Of illegitimate birth himself, Apollinaire was, in the lang• uage of Shakespeare, slightly amended, a "whoreson good fellow",6 who liked to spend his evenings with his friends, with his mis• tress and occasionally with the ladies of the night.

Technically a foreigner, he was more French than many people whose native land was France. Although scared of, and sometimes despising, women, he was very much attracted by them. He could be very attentive and charming to both men and women, but he had an element of cruelty in his nature which came to the surface occasionally. This strange combination resulted in disastrous experiences, which formed the inspiration for much of his best poetry; it also meant that joyous moments alternated with periods of depression; this aspect is symptomatic of clinical bipolar disorder in a relatively mild form (a detailed discussion of which will be developed in Chapter 5).

The second part will provide an analytical discussion of the many poems which Apollinaire saw fit to include in his AT cools.

Poems dating from Apollinaire's adolescence and the poems of the

Rhineland which the poet did not include in Alcools as well as other poems that fit into the above time frames will be included.

Most of these were contained in the anthologies, mainly post• humous, prepared by his friends and admirers, the selection being

guided by what the individual work or collection of poems reveals

about the poet's personality.

These aspects of personality will be summarised in the 6 concluding chapter of this thesis. It is sufficient at this point to state that they are many and varied, as befits a man whose influence on his contemporaries and on -the the whole gamut of post-symbolist poetry was immense.

The review will be attempted in chronological order of first composition or committal to writing even if subsequent major changes were made prior to publication, rather than taking the much easier approach of reviewing the works by date of publication. The purely thematic approach has been considered as a possible alternative but the complexity of trying to trace the development of Apollinaire's character over time, theme by theme, would create an over-long dissertation. This particular route has been followed by R.H. Stamelman, M-J. Durry and D. Berry. However it is intended that important themes will be the subject of comment.

In examining the two choices, namely first composition date and publication date, the latter is influenced by several circum• stances beyond the poet's control, such as acceptance of the work by the editor of the review or other publication; the state of the poet's finances (these being, in Apollinaire's case, always precarious); other non-poetic activities, for example, writing art reviews, starting and completion dates of prose works etc., which might cause the poet to lay aside a poem that he was

inspired to write in the heat of some intellectual or amatory

stimulus. On the other hand, the date of first composition, even

if the poem was subsequently truncated or added to, will tend to

reflect the state of the poet's mind more faithfully at the 7 moment he first set pen to paper, and the changes that subsequent thoughts may have wrought.

Dating the poems is extremely difficult since,for the most part, Apollinaire gave no indication of when he was inspired to start a given work. Frequently he delved into his stockpile of manuscripts which predated the said work to lift a whole stanza from the earlier work, if he felt that it was suitable for the one he was actually working on.

Another problem involved in dealing with Apollinaire's poetry is the long delay between the creative act and the final publication, often after multiple revisions. A case in point is

"Merlin et la vieille femme" which dates from the turn of the century but was not published until 1912. A further difficulty arises from frequent additions to the basic poem.

Prominent Apollinarians have attempted the chronology with varying degrees of success but their efforts have been confined mainly to a specific collection such as Alcools7 or

Calligrammes.8 The information provided in the notes to the

Oeuvres poetiques9 and in Michel Decaudin's Le Dossier d'Alcools10 has been used wherever possible. Unfortunately, in some cases, such information is confined to publication dates only; thus it is not always relevant when one is seeking the date on which the poet first set pen to paper. Leroy Breunig's chronology has also been used but his pioneering effort is now somewhat outdated in the light of subsequent research.11

Francis Carmody also has tried to tackle the foregoing problem but he has preferred to stress publication dates and the 8 final drafts - rather than the present approach, which attempts to arrive at the date most closely related to the emotional stimulus which triggered the poetic work in its original form.12

The criteria used to determine the year of first composition, as shown opposite each poem, are many and varied.

Mme Durry has succeeded in describing and dating the journeys

Apollinaire made in Europe. Apollinaire's journey down the Rhine provided many clues since it was possible to identify nearly every poem with a location. Moves from Honnef to Krayerhof and

Neu Gliick have been documented by the biographers and furnish nearly exact dates. Seasons of the year if mentioned in a poem provided further information. It has been assumed that

Apollinaire was not a man who allowed his poetic creation to simmer for any length of time since he preferred to make a rough draft as soon as the event, thought, or inspiration moved him; consequently time of year and location, when available, provide accurate information in regard to first date of composition. When Apollinaire was working -on more than one poem at a time (which is probably the case with "Cortege", "Le

Brasier", "Les Fiancailles", and "Vendemiaire"), the dates are reasonably close. Another factor taken into consideration is

Apollinaire's relationships with the various schools of poetry, painting and sculpture that were a feature of "La Belle Epoque".

Where there is some doubt, appropriate comments are made when

analysing a given poem.

Apollinaire's contemporaries, Andre Salmon, Andre Rouveyre,

Andre Billy, to name a few, and younger ones such as Andre 9

Breton have left us with much information as to how the poet's personality affected them, but it is surely in his poetry that one must look for evidence as to what entered into his physical and mental make-up.

' This thesis, then, is an attempt to draw a portrait of the person through his poetry and to try to establish, where possible, how certain events affected his mental condition, and the connexion between such events and the poetry that Apollinaire produced between his ' teen-age years and the successful compilation of ^Alcools'. 10

NOTES: INTRODUCTION

1 Philippe Renaud. Lecture d'Apollinan re (Lausanne: L'Age d'Homme, 1969) 83.

2 Marie-Jeanne Durry, Guillaume Apollinaire:'Alcools'

3 vols. (Paris: S.E.D.E.S., 1964.)

Leroy C. Breunig. "The chronology of Apollinaire's

vAlronl s' " PMT.A 67. 7 (1952): 907-923.

Philippe Renaud, Lecture d'Apollinaire

3 Michaud, Guy. "Comme un guetteur melancolique-essai sur la personnalite d'Apollinaire". Revue des lettres modernes. 276-

279 (1971) : 7-34.

4 Guillaume Apollinaire, Tendre comme le souvenirr

(Paris: Gallimard, 1950).

5 Pierre-Marcel Adema, Guillaume Apollinairef Collection

Les Vies Perpendiculaires,. (Paris: Editions de la Table Ronde,

1968) 267.

6 William Shakespeare, Hamlet, V. 1.

7 Marie Jeanne Durry, Guillaume Apollinaire XA1cools', 3

vols. (Paris: S.E.D.E.S., 1964). 11

8 Anne Hyde Greet, trans. Guillaume Apollinaire

Calligrammes (Berkeley: Univ. of California P. 1980.)

9 Guillaume Apollinaire, Oeuvres poetiques. Bibliotheque de la Pleiade, (Paris: Gallimard, 1956). Hereafter referred to as

"O.P."

10 Michel Decaudin, T.e Dossier d'Alcools (Paris, Geneve:

Minard, Droz., 1960.)

11 LeRoy C. Breunig, "The chronology of Apollinaire's xAlcools.'" PMTiA 67 (1952): 907-923.

12 Francis Carmody, The Evolution of Apollinaire's Poetics

1901-1914. (Berkeley: Univ. of California P., 1963.) 12

CHAPTER 1

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

on Apollinaire

1. Childhood and adolescence 1880-1899

Apollinaire took his surname Kostrowitzky from his mother, since his real father Francesco Flugi d'Aspermont, born in the

Grisons to a family of ancient lineage who settled in Sicily, forsook his paternal responsiblities while his bastard child was barely of school age. A fair assessment of Francesco would be a turn-of-the-century playboy.

Angelique Alexandrine Kostrowicki was the daughter of

Michael, a member of the ancient but petty Polish nobility, who was in the the service of the Pope as a chamberlain with the title of "Cameriere d'onore di capa e spada", and Julia Floriani, an Italian.

She was a wilful and obstreperous girl who was asked to leave her school in 1874 when she was 16. The stuffy atmosphere 13 of the Vatican court and the dull prospect of an arranged marri• age predisposed Angelique to run away with the dashing Francesco.

Apollinaire summed up the circumstances of his birth, in the

last days of August 1880 in the well-known lines which appear in his poem "Le Larron", first published in August 1903 in the peri• odical La Plume, but dating probably to the period before his trip to the Rhineland:

Maraudeur etranger malhabile et malade

Ton pere fut un sphinx et ta mere une nuit.1

The poet was acutely conscious of his foreign birth and the mystery concerning the identity of his father. His mother even delayed acknowledging him as her son until the second of November when he was given the names of Wilhelm Albert Vladimir Alexander

Apollinaris de Kostrowitzky, since his mother had decided to add

the prefix "de" to her frenchified surname.

Francesco and Angelique stayed on in Italy, mainly in Rome

and Bologna, until Francesco disappeared in 1884 to escape a load

of debts incurred by the couple's extravagant life style. At this point Francesco's brother Niccolo, who had taken his vows as a

Benedictine and was known as Dom Romarino, stepped in and took on

the educational responsiblities of Wilhelm and his younger

brother Albert, born in 1882, whose father's identity was also

mysterious.

What were the traits of character that were passed on to

Wilhelm by his father? Adema provides the following based on his

detailed research.

De la lignee paternelle ou les hommes d'eglise, les 14

hommes d'epee, les hauts fonctionnaires, se retrouvent

a chaque generation, il tenait la courtoisie, l'opinit-

trete et le sens si vif de l'honneur du general Flugi.2

Mme de Kostrowitzky, after Francesco abandoned her, took up residence in Monaco where the boys were put to school. This move allowed her to live the life she hankered after: she loved to gamble and to indulge in transitory liaisons which often had some pecuniary advantage to her.

Dom Romarino must have been a proud guardian of his bro• ther's child, since Wilhelm was one of the brightest students at the school run by the Marianist fathers in Monaco whose influence imbued him with a deep sense of religion. Although Apollinaire became an agnostic later on in life, his childhood years in this religious environment were to have a deep psychological influence on him as he grew older.

When Wilhelm moved to Nice early in 1897 to prepare for his baccalaureat he was befriended by young Toussaint Luca, a. fellow student, who stood by him steadfastly in later life. Both these young men had by this time developed a strong literary bent and were in the forefront of literary activity in their lycee.

Wilhelm's cheerful and gregarious disposition won him many friends who were the recipients of his poems and writings. He walked about with his pockets stuffed with books and could discourse on all sorts of learned topics, since his powers of

retention of whatever he read were absolutely phenomenal.

The young student was a voracious reader of everything from

ancient mythology through the Arthurian legends to symbolist 15 verse. His early literary efforts were on loose sheets passed from hand to hand among the students and most have been irretrievably lost to posterity.

Guillaume also wrote poetry in regular and blank verse in plentifully-illustrated exercise books. Works written in Nice have been preserved, thanks to the interest shown by Toussaint

Luca, who has provided seven in his book of reminiscences.3

His mother's name was included at this time in a list of ladies of the demi-monde, which the Principality of Monaco had set up with a view to purging the area of their presence, so that in 1899 she and her current lover Jules Weil, some eleven years younger than her, were forced to leave the municipality. The foursome went at first to Aix-les Bains, thence to Lyons and finally reached Paris.

Another point is that the support of Dom Romarino was con• ditional on Wilhelm's doing well at school, and his own departure from the Riviera was hastened by his failure in this respect, as well as the general drying up of his family's financial resources.

Moreover the nominally rich Jules had a financial problem and they decided to try their luck at the gaming tables in Spa, the Belgian health resort, in order to recoup their fortunes; they soon became personae non gratae there too.

The two boys lodged at a pension in Stavelot, a village near

Spa in the company of their "Uncle Jules". The presence in the

village of Guillaume, known as the handsome young- "Russian

Count", made him the cynosure of the village maidens during his stay there, and he soon became enamoured of Maria to whom he addressed a poem in acrostic form. After the villagers had all gone to bed Wilhelm loved to go for long walks at night, and the

Ardennes countryside with its ghostly dark woods, and its general harshness and gloominess, could not fail to affect the sensitive youth. It was so different from the brightly coloured landscape of the Mediterranean.4 The poem "Fagnes de Wallonie" evidences the poets feelings during this period.

The introspective nature of his thoughts provided the poetic inspiration; however, the periods of introspection always fol• lowed any reverse in his courtship and did not occur when he was in hot pursuit. This is perhaps the most salient fact in almost all of Apollinaire's best work.

It was not long before Guillaume and his brother Albert received instructions from their mother to decamp without paying their bill and to meet her in Paris, where they were to live with her in somewhat squalid surroundings.

At this point one should examine the hereditary traits passed on to Wilhelm. His maternal grandfather Michael was the famous Prince Radziwill's boon companion. It was from him that

Wilhelm inherited the traits of a consuming sensuality, his love of food, his appetite for life. It was from his mother that he was prone to sudden changes of attitude which tended to upset those he came into contact with, but the victims of this incons• tancy were invariably won over by his enormous personal charm.5

Wilhelm had had a streak of possessiveness with some elements of brutality, traits which were probably derived from his mother also.

During the course of his reading, Apollinaire recorded in notebooks many words that were seldom used or simply attractive for their sound alone. These books were a depository for his thoughts which were mostly of a self analytical nature; witness this quotation from one that was probably written in Stavelot and carefully preserved by Jacqueline Apollinaire.

Pourquoi ne suis-je pas riche comme tant d'autres.

Pourquoi mon avenir se present-t-il mysterieux,

hermetique alors que les autres, fils de famille,

riches, ne voient dans 1'avenir qu'une succession de

fetes, de noces, avec le gatisme final de l'heure de

mariage, tandis que moi... J'eus mieux fait au lycee de

bucher mes maths et d'essayer Centrale, de tacher d'en

sortir ingenieur, d'avoir une position assuree. Non au

lieu de travailler, j'ai fait des vers, j'ai eu des

reves, je me suis occupe de litt6rature, merde, merde.6

It • is obvious from the foregoing that Apollinaire realised what a hard life lay ahead and that any other gainful employment was merely a means to an end - that of making his mark in litera• ture . 18

2. The early years in Paris 1899-1901

Once in Paris Wilhelm had to look for work; he soon found a job as a ghost writer at so much a line for a serial story writer by the name of Esnard, whose verbose inspiration had deserted him, and whose capability to remember to pay his ghost writers seemed similarly deficient. However Esnard's young mistress was good enough to pay him in kind.

The police, alerted by the Stavelot innkeeper, arraigned the

Kostrowitzkys who skillfully pleaded innocence of wrongdoing and thus succeeded in having the case stayed.

The early days in Paris were characterised by extreme penury, the Kostrowitzkys moved from one sleazy set of.furnished rooms to another while young Wilhelm set out daily looking for work, genarally meeting with nothing but rebuffs. This period was recorded in "La Porte" and "Hotels".

A job in a stockbrokers office selling stocks and shares was found and resulted either in no salary or the rare payment. So once more Apollinaire was on the street. He then attended a school of stenography and passed the elementary level. However

Apollinaire was more interested in frequenting the various libraries in Paris and started to move in literary circles where

Jean Seve befriended him and was instrumental in having a few of the poet's early works accepted by a magazine titled La Grande

France. Apollinaire by this time had quite a supply of poems mostly in draft form of which the earliest were "L'Ermite", "Le

Larron" and "Merlin et la vieille femme". 19

Apollinaire was often accompanied on his nocturnal walks by a friend from the Stock Exchange, Rene Nicosia, who was greatly amused by the former's wit, his puns and his readiness to overcome his misery by laughing at himself. Rene was one of the

first to recognize Apollinaire's merit.

A chance acquaintance in a brasserie was Ferdinand Molina Da

Silva, the son of a Jewish teacher of ballroom dancing and deportment. Wilhelm's reading had encompassed various Jewish works including the Kabbala and he was very much on the side of

Dreyfus during that very unfortunate episode in French history.

The Molinas made Wilhelm feel very much at home; he lacked this

sentiment in the company of his high-strung mother. This sym• pathetic family encouraged Wilhelm to blossom out and many pleasant evenings were spent with them as they listened to the

often brilliant discourse of this extraordinary young man.

Ferdinand's beautiful sister Linda Molina, aged 16, was the

eldest daughter and Wilhelm found himself somewhat drawn to her, however she was by no means inclined to reciprocate. Like so many

of Apollinaire's romantic attachments, this one was notable for a poetic effusion, and for evidence of a jealous streak in his

nature.

There followed some extraordinarily stilted correspondence

when the Molinas left for their holidays, it comprised several

postcards mostly in a poetic vein,. "Les Diets d'amour a Linda". 20

3. Germany, the Rhineland and Annie Playden 1901-1902

Mme Nicosia, who so enjoyed the company of her son's friend, was anxious to help him; to this end she introduced him to Mme de

Milhau, the mother of Gabrielle, who was being taught by the former to play the piano. The result of this meeting was the engagement of Wilhelm as a part-time tutor of French for the little girl. This in turn resulted in a year's contract and the departure of Mme de Milhau, her daughter and Mme de Milhau's mother for the Rhineland where the Milhaus had several estates.

Included in the group was a pretty English girl of very strict upbringing, Annie Playden, who had been hired to teach Gabrielle

English and to be a ladies' maid.

There could not have been a greater contrast than . that between the ebullient and hot-blooded son of a Slav and an

Italian, and the daughter of a deeply religious landscape gardener who had nicknamed himself "the Archbishop of Canterbury"

on account of his very strong committment to the Church of

England. Their romance was,to say the least, turbulent, and must have caused Mme de Milhau some anxiety. This was resolved by

allowing Wilhelm to have several leaves of absence, which he put to good account by touring all over Central Europe collecting material for commentaries which he sent to Paris for publication,

and delving into the folklore of each of the places he visited,

e.g. Bonn, Prague, Vienna, Cologne and Dresden.

The Milhau family had three residences in the Rhineland. The

late summer and early autumn was spent in Honnef, from which place Apollinaire made his first visit to Cologne. The late autumn and winter was spent in Neu Gliick, situated east of the

Rhine. The family met at the estate of Anna von Fisenne, Mme de

Milhau's aunt, at Krayerhof, which was a short distance west of the Rhine, for All Souls Day. Apollinaire left Neu Gliick in

February for his second visit to Cologne, where he arrived in time for the Shrove Tuesday carnival, and then proceeded on his

European tour.

Mme de Milhau, Gabrielle, Annie and Guillaume forgathered in

Munich in late March, and probably proceeded down the Rhine by boat from Bacharach and arrived back in Honnef in late May.

Apollinaire stayed there until his contract ran out.

The year away from France from August 1901 to August 1902 provided the inspiration for the "Rhenanes" series of poems, all of which have much merit. However one had to await the definite break-up of relations with Annie before Apollinaire rose to the poetic heights of "La Chanson du Mal-Aime", notwithstanding the fact that this poem is partly a collage of some earlier works. 22

4. Entry into the world of arts and letters 1902-1907

Back in Paris, Wilhelm was faced with a shortage of cash and the inconvenience of living with his mother and being dependent on his brother Albert, who fortunately worked as a bank clerk.

Thanks to his "uncle" Jules Weil, the young man managed to find a similar job, which did not prevent him from submitting material to periodicals such as I/Europeen, Le Mercure de.France, Albani a,

La Revue blanche, and La Plume. Most of these submissions were either the product of previous years in the case of poetry, notably "Automne", or documentary essays based on his experiences in central Europe. It was at this time that he began using the surname Apollinaire instead of de Kostrowitzky. L'European sent him to Strasbourg to cover a trial. This visit, evidently on an expense paid basis, resulted in a poem, "1904" which evidences the love of good food and drink so characteristic of Apollinaire.

Some of the early poems were published in 1903, followed in

1904 by the bulk of the Rhenish poems after their protracted period of gestation, and the other poems inspired by the poet's travels in Europe.

Slowly but surely Apollinaire began to expand his circle of friends and acquaintances. He had a brief affair with an Yvonne living in the same apartment house. This resulted in five -little poems but he was soon abandoned by the pragmatic girl, likely

looking for a suitor who was better off.

In those days under the sponsorship of La Plume, a literary

journal, aspiring poets met in a cellar to recite and criticize their works before an invited audience. It was there that some lasting friendships were forged with Andre Salmon, Paul Fort and

Alfred Jarry, all of whom were trying to explore new pathways in the forest of literary creativity.

The impending failures of the various little periodicals to which Apollinaire contributed resulted in an attempt to branch out in a new venture, the short-lived Festin d'F.sope with

Guillaume Apollinaire as editor-in-chief. The bank in which

Apollinaire worked was involved in a spectacular collapse, and he turned his hand simultaneously to the editorship of a financial tract Le Guide du Rentier,, moniteur des pet its capitalistes. The busy young editor nevertheless took time off to visit London in

November 1903 and again in May 1904 to see his beloved Annie

Playden. His conduct on this occasion was such that the scared

Playdens persuaded their daughter to apply for a position in the

United States in order to get her out of his clutches. This final rupture brought on two of Apollinaire's finest poems, "La Chanson du Mal-Aime" alluded to earlier and "L'Emigrant de Landor Road", the latter also including some lines culled from earlier unpublished poems. The poem "Hyde Park" was inspired by the 1903 visit.

During the summer of 1904 the Kostrowitzkys lived in Le

Vesinet, a suburb in the loop of the Seine northwest of Paris,

reached by train from the Gare St Lazare; it was a place favoured

by artists. Apollinaire met the painter Derain there, as he

walked beside the river. "La Grenouillere", a little island in

the Seine which he visited at this time provided the inspiration 24 for a poem of the same name.

Apollinaire liked to frequent the English style pubs near the station and it was in one of these that he was introduced to

Picasso who in turn introduced him to Max Jacob: the three were to be bound in a friendship that was to exercise a considerable influence on each of them. In order to visit his new-found friends, the poet began to frequent Montmartre where Picasso had his studio. It was the focus for many visitors from all walks of life.

In 1904 there was no major poetic creativity due no doubt to lack of love interest, but single pre-existing works found their way into some literary journals such as T,' Immoraliste. La Plume, and La revue litteraire de Paris et de Champagne. It was thanks to the decisions of Paul Fort, the editor of Vers et Prose, that in the winter of 1905/6, four major poems, "L'Emigrant de Landor

Road", "Salome", "Les Cloches" and "Mai" were published.

During this "Vesinet" period Apollinaire made trips to

Belgium and Holland, once in the company of a ne'er-do-weel by the name of Gery Pieret, ostensibly to find new outlets for his poetry and prose.

Louis de Gonzague Frick, a former school friend, was instru• mental in getting some more early works published in La Phalange, a journal with Neo-Symbolist tendencies. Prose works tended to be a feature of Apollinaire's production at this time; an article in the Mercure de France on the subject of Anatole France's "Thais"

appeared; he completed the first version of "L'Enchanteur

Pourrissant" which he published in the Festin d'Esope between 25

March and August 1904, and began his first efforts in the field of criticism and encouragement of the plastic arts.

Apollinaire, needing money in 1906 to maintain his expanded life style, temporarily deserted poetry in favour of prose; he became involved in what was to continue as his secondary literary activity, the creation of erotic works such as his Les

Exploits ri'un jenne Don Juan and Les onze milie verges and in the editing and annotation of the erotic works of earlier writers.

The round of soirees in the Montmartre bistros continued, with Apollinaire at the centre of a crowd of artists and writers who have become world famous, Gertrude Stein, Pierre MacOrlan,

Utrillo, Modigliani, Vlaminck, etc.

On one of these occasions Picasso engineered an- encounter between a slim young girl, the daughter of a Creole father, and his poet friend, who at this time had no romantic attachments.

The two of them, Marie Laurencin and Guillaume, became inseparable. In fact their relationship was to be the subject of

Le Douanier Rousseau's painting "Le poete et et sa muse". The period of poetic inaction was over; the engine of a romantic attachment was once more to motivate his poetic genius.

Apollinaire's reputation as an art critic was widening and he lost no opportunity of discreetly promoting the works of his mistress and of his friends, Picasso and Rousseau.

A favorite literary watering place of Apollinaire's was La

Closerie des Lilas in Montparnasse near the Luxembourg gardens and presided over by Paul Fort, with a clientele of writers. Here

in 1907 he became involved in what was more likely a publicity stunt than an affair of honour - a duel to which he challenged

Max Daireaux - because he took umbrage at the latter's poking fun at the former's insistence on drinking only "his" mineral water

"Apollinaris". Cooler heads, the seconds named by each, prevailed and the matter was settled by their deciding that it was not after all an affair in which honour was involved.7 27

5. New directions 1908

Early in the year, Apollinaire tried to reach a larger audi• ence than that provided by La Phalange. This time as a lecturer on the subject of the new poets, "La Phalange nouvelle", his

fresh ideas and style appealed to an enthusiastic audience. He was often called upon as a "conferencier" in the years that

followed.

In February La Phalange published "Onirocritique", an extra• ordinary dream poem in verse and prose that Adema puts forward as being a prelude to Surrealism.8 In May 1908 another journal, Gil

Bias published "Le Brasier" (by its original name of "Le Pyree") which broke new ground, and this "annus mirabilis" ended with the

publication in yet another review, Panf of "Les Fiancailles".

By now Apollinaire was living by his pen alone and with his predilection for the erotic he was happy to join forces with Fer nand Fleuret, who was similarly involved, in a lengthy project of

cataloguing the holdings of erotica in the Bibliotheque Nation

ale. At the same time he was busy prefacing and annotating an an

thology, T,es matt-res de 1' amour for the Briffaut Brothers who

headed up the Bibliotheque des Curieux which catered to a spec

ialised clientele. Mention must be made of Le Bestiaire which was

also published that same year.

The celebrated banquet for Le Douanier Rousseau took place

in November at Picasso's studio. Andre Salmon's account of this

riotous event provides a good insight into the characters of

those who made up the group to which Apollinaire belonged.9 28

6. The years of happiness and stress 1909-1912

January 1909 marked the beginning of the year-long "Louise

Lalanne" caper. Eugene Montfort, the editor of Les Marges to which Apollinaire contributed some of his articles, conceived the idea of having him pretend to be a lady writer of poetry and commentary. The articles were quite lively. However the denouement of the hoax finally came, with Montfort announcing that

Louise had eloped with a cavalry officer and admitting that the mysterious authoress was in fact Guillaume Apollinaire. The victims of this elaborate hoax were later to show their displeasure when Apollinaire needed all the help he could get.

Paul Leautaud, another of Apollinaire's literary friends, was on the board of Le Mercure de France: a chance remark by Apollinaire to his friend resulted in immediate publication in May of "La

Chanson du Mal-Aime" which had been languishing in a drawer, probably since 1907, in the publisher's office.10

Apollinaire was much too busy meeting friends here, there and everywhere, getting his earlier poems published, (for example some of the Rhineland ones), contributing commentaries and criti• cisms to various newspapers and reviews, arranging for the publi• cation in November 1909 of his novella L'Enchanteur pourrissant and moving from Montmartre to Auteuil to be near Marie Laurencin, to apply himself solidly to poetry; though poetic inspiration over that period was not entirely lacking, he found time to write and read a poem at the wedding of his good friend Andre.Salmon on

July 13 1909 ("Poeme lu au mariage d'Andre Salmon") and to work 29 on "1909", "Saltimbanques" and "Crepuscule".

The next year, 1910, was distinguished by the publication of

Le Restiaire in volume form. Apollinaire wrote a dozen new poems and scrapped a few that had first appeared in 1908 in La

Phalange. Apollinaire and his illustrator Raoul Dufy worked hard on this project - which, however, was a publishing failure.

Apollinaire had to move once again on account of the Seine river overflowing its banks. His reportage of this event earned him a byline in the prestigious 1/ Intransi geant, where he took over from Andre Salmon the column "La Vie artistique". No new poetry reached the stage of publication.

Publication in the Spring of 1911 of L'Heresiarque et Cie, other prose works, and some preliminary work in connection with what was to be his famous collection Alcools (originally advert• ised as Kan-ds-Vie) kept him so busy that his friends sometimes complained that he seemed incapable of being punctual, to the ex• tent of forgetting all about an invitation.

The publisher P.-V. Stock put Apollinaire in the running for the prix Goncourt with L/Heresiarque & Cie, but the failure to win it on the third and last ballot was a great disappointment. A favourable review of the book by Andre Billy resulted in their becoming fast friends for the rest of Apollinaire's life. The

staid Billy stood by his bohemian friend through all the vicissitudes the future held in store for him.

The Spring of 1911 saw the start of the "La Vie anecdotique"

commentary in the Mercure de France. Apollinaire continued with

this activity until his untimely death. By now Apollinaire had 30 acquired a certain notoriety, particularly in artistic and literary circles. The admiration of his friends was counterbalanced with a mixture of pique and jealousy among a small coterie of detractors.

The former supported him in all the vicissitudes that were to follow.

To some extent Apollinaire's notoriety was due to a combin• ation of his never-ending attempts to get a foothold on the slip• pery slope of fame and fortune, both as a critic and poet, and his almost wilful powers of mystifying friend and foe alike. To underline this aspect an assessment made by one of his colleagues on T/ Tntransigeant in April of the previous year is quoted in part:

..., vous ne pourriez concevoir combien complexe et

raffinee est l'ame que contient ce personnage d'aspect

hollandais.

Erudit et parlant tous les dialectes italiens,

poete ayant ecrit des vers libres charmants, critique

d'art et se plaisant a 1'effort des pires Independants,

Apollinaire aime le beau subtil, 1'erudition solide, le

vin vieux, l'art in-certain et les propos savants qui

restent, avec une patte en l'air, entre deux verites.

C'est un sage a la maniere d'Esope.

On le soupconne d'un leger penchant pour la

mystification... II est si complexe et si artiste.11

The wayward Gery Pieret, the former collaborator on the

Guide du rentier and the poet's travelling companion in 1904, was 31 a compulsive thief. After a self-imposed exile in America he appealed to his friend Apollinaire for food and shelter and brazenly used the poet's apartment as a repository for a statue of a woman's head that he had stolen from the Louvre museum.

This theft coincided with the mysterious disappearance of the famous painting, the Mona Lisa, in French "La Joconde", from the same place. In August 1911, the return of the head and an anonymous letter focussed the attention of the police on the innocent Apollinaire, who was locked up in the Sante prison on

September 7th on a charge of complicity in the theft of the painting.

His real friends rallied round and, after a week of the utmost stress, obtained his provisional release on September

12th: but it was not until January of the following year that the charge was finally quashed. This period is distinguished by the

"A La Sante" series of six poems, which give a heartrending description of his depressed state of mind - which was brought on not only by the imprisonment, but also by the realisation that

Marie Laurencin had tired of him, and that he had in fact lost the companion of some of his happiest days.

This loss provided the inspiration of "Le Pont Mirabeau" which with the contemporaneous "Cors de chasse" contains echos of the prison poems.

1912 was again a busy year for Apollinaire. It started with

Billy and his other friends founding Les Soirees de Paris as a vehicle for Apollinaire's talents as an editor and contributor.

This was the best possible cure for his depression. This review 32 saw the first publication of "Le Pont Mirabeau" in February and

"Marie" in October, which served as a sort of double rite of exorcism consequent upon the loss of Marie Laurencin's affection.

Les Soirees de Paris also published "Le Voyageur" and "Cors de chasse" in September, "Vendemiaire" in November, and "Zone" in

December. There is evidence that this last poem was drafted in

June, when the Picabias and Apollinaire were on holiday in the

Jura mountains, and further worked upon later that year while staying with the Delaunays.

Apollinaire's contributions to his review in 1912 were dominated by the poems listed in the•preceding paragraph but he had quite a bit to say about modern painting - since he was in the company of the Delaunays, who put him up when he could not face living in Auteuil on account of its memories of Marie

Laurencin. Delaunay was quite a theorist on the subject of painting, being the self-styled inventor of simultaneism; in addition, Francis Picabia and his wife Gabrielle Buffet were active proponents of a more abstract type of painting.

Apollinaire used to spend some week-ends with them at their place in Garches, just west of Paris - enjoyable breaks which are mentioned in the short poem "Montparnasse" which dates from this period. This part of Paris was now preferred by the poet who described his feelings thus, albeit two years later: 33

Montparnasse d'ores et deja remplace Montmartre....

on (y) trouve maintenant les vrais artistes habilles a

1'americaine....

Que voila un pays agreable ou tout le ciel est pour

1'usage externe, pays de plein air et des

terrasses...12

These new artist friends were instrumental in restoring the poet to his more usual, at least outwardly, extrovert self. The curious poem "Les fenetres" was written at the Delaunays. It was exercise in simultaneism: a "poeme-conversation" based on notes taken while having a drink with his friends Andre Billy and Rene

Dalize. 34

7. Literary experimentation during 1912 - 1914

The first of the year saw the poet settling into the attic apartment at 202 Boulevard Saint-Germain which was to be his home

for the remaining six years of his life. This move did not result

in the loss of the ties that bound him to those of his artist

friends who chose to remain in Montmartre.. In fact this period was notable for the energy that -Apollinaire devoted to art

criticism and his terrier-like chasing of the multifarious "isms" that rose to the surface and presented themselves to him.

Coincident with the opening of the Salon des Independants in

January was the publication of Les peintre.q cubistes, meditations

esthetigues, on which Apollinaire had worked at the end of 1912.

The subtitle should really have been the title, since more than

half of the book is devoted to a discussion of painting, with

only a few pages devoted to names who (thanks in part to

Apollinaire) have since become celebrated artists whose works are

now sought after by collectors; Picasso, Braque, Metzinger,

Gleizes, Marie Laurencin, Juan Gris, Leger, Picabia and Marcel

Duchamp. The book also deals with the sculptor Duchamp-Villon and

mentions several other painters such as Dufy, Derain, Van Dongen

and sculptors such as Archipenko and Brancusi as belonging to the

"Cubist" persuasion, but only in passing.

Maurice Raynal's review of the book is the most penetrating,

throwing as it does a light on Apollinaire's character;

C'est pourquoi dans cette sorte de poeme sur la

peinture qu'il vient de publier, on sent tout d'abord 35

que sa nature principalement poetique lui defendait de

commenter et d'expliquer la peinture meme.

En general, les vrais poetes ne comprennent rien, mais

ressentent tout. Aussi Guillaume Apollinaire, sorte de

sensualiste mystique, ne comprend pas la peinture,

mais la percoit, 1 ' £prouve .13

1913 was a busy year, notable for the amount of investiga• tion and experimentation. "Arbre" and "Liens", published in March and April respectively, are typical of this period. In addition to the publication of Alcools in April, Apollinaire's. time was taken up with his contributions to newspapers such as

T/Tntransigeant and Paris-Journal, to reviews such as Le Mercure de France, in preparing commentaries for the books being pub• lished by the Briffaut brothers in their "Bibliotheque des

Curieux", and putting together the manifesto "L'Antitradition futuriste", in June, with his friend Marinetti and the other

Italian Futurists, who were also tasting the heady wine of simultaneism.

Apollinaire dabbled in the Unanimism of Jules Romains and

Georges Duhamel and the Dramatism of Jacques Barzun but the only

"ism" that met with the poet's aspirations was "Orphism", exemp•

lified by the bright colours and light of Delaunay's Eiffel Tower

and the leit-motiv of light in "Les Fenetres". Apollinaire

described it thus:14

La simultaneity des couleurs par des contrastes

simultanes et par toutes les mesures (impaires) issues

des couleurs selon leur expression dans leur mouvement representatif, voila la seule realite pour construire

en peinture.

La lumiere n'est pas un procede, elle glisse vers nous,

elle nous est communiquee par notre sensibilite.

Apollinaire's tendency to support a given artistic movement only to drop it a short time later had the result of alienating those who had espoused it. This is particularly true of Georges

Duhamel, who got his own back when reviewing Alcools by express• ing the feelings of many critics who were bewildered by the multiple changes of pace, style and versification, not to mention the total lack of punctuation in the collection; however, none were quite as vituperative as his former friend. Witness these few extracts:

Rien ne fait davantage penser a une boutique de

brocanteur que ce recueil des vers...je dis boutique de

brocanteur, parce qu'il est venu echouer dans ce taudis

une foule d'objets heteroclites dont certains ont de la

valeur, mais dont aucun n'est le produit de l'industrie

du marchand meme. ...Une truculente et etourdissante

variete tient lieu d'art, dans 1'assemblage des objets.

C'est a peine si, par les trous d'une chasuble miteuse,

on apergoit le regard ironique et naif du marchand, qui

tient a la fois du Juif levantin, de l'Americain du Sud,

du gentillhomme polonais et du facchino. . . .Aussi, brave-

t-il impudemment les regies les plus accommodantes de la

mesure et du gout.15 37

Such opprobrium was too much for Apollinaire, who wanted to challenge Duhamel to a duel. It was only due to the intervention once again of Andre Billy that the matter was laid to rest..

The experiment of "Les Fenetres" was followed by "Lundi rue

Christine" and "Un fantome de nuees" in December 1913. Earlier that year, the poet created "Le Musicien de Saint-Merry". The major poem "Les Collines" is also contemporary with the other prewar poems, though it was not published until April 1918 (in the Calligramities collection) .

Thus ended an interesting period of poetic creativity in its more usual format.

Most of these poems dating from just before the War are of challenging complexity and range from "poemes-conversations", essays in simultaneism, and attempts to render in poetic form the painting efforts of his friends Delaunay, Chirico and Chagall who, with Cendrars, were a strong influence on Apollinaire in the later part of 1912, in 1913 and the early part of 1914. These poems were published mainly in Les Soirees de Paris.

The next activity was creating of what Apollinaire called

"Ideogrammes lyriques", later to be incorporated into the first or "Ondes" portion of his second major collection Calligr amines.

Most of these were published in the summer of 1914. The ideogram

"II Pleut" must have been written in the spring. It is a meteor•

ological fact that summer that.year was gloriously sunny; it was not published until December 1916.

In an effort to eke out a living Apollinaire managed to get

a job in Deauville at the height of that resort's season, writing 38 a series of society notes. He was accompanied by Andre Rouveyre, but this activity was cut short by the general mobilisation order of July 31 1914. The last of the pre-war poems was "La petite auto" which marked the end of an era, both in a poetic sense and in the broader historical one: henceforth inspiration would result from his war experiences and his relationships with Louise de Coligny, Madeleine Pages, and Jacqueline Kolb. 39

8. Apollinaire on active service 1914-1916

The very names of the remaining subtitles to the Calli- grammes collection indicate the important part the War played in the poet's, life; "Etendards", "Case d'armons", "Lueurs des tirs",

"Obus couleur de lune", "La tete "etoilee".

Apollinaire's one thought was how best he could fight for his beloved France. He was still technically a Russian national, owing to his having been born of a Polish mother, but insisted that he owed no allegiance to either of those countries. A recruiting office which had taken down his particulars was closed, as it was operating unofficially, so the frustrated patriot was happy to accept an offer of board and lodging in Nice from a friend, since he had stored his few belongings. The friend

M. Siegler-Pascal introduced him early in September to a flighty and snobbish young lady, Louise de Coligny-Chatillon, and

Apollinaire lost no time in paying strenuous court to her.

A slight tiff resulted in his reporting to the official recruiting office in the Nice mayoralty where he was immediately enlisted in the Artillery and told to report to Nimes.

In a letter to Lou, by way of explanation, he described his action as being imprudent. This was enough for her to accept his challenge and she left immediately to join him for nine days of what can only be described as' frantic lovemaking.

Two weeks after this memorable period Apollinaire went on

leave to rejoin Lou for a day or two and this was followed by

another three days at the end of January. Apart from a brief meeting on the 2 9th of March 1915 and an even shorter chance encounter three years later in Paris, this was the last he ever saw of her, but a stream of letters and poems flowed for another twelve months. He knew she was unfaithful but he must have found some psychological relief in this hopeless activity. No less than, seventy five poems were composed by Apollinaire in a six month period which Apollinaire himself claimed were the best that he had written since the war began.

By the end of March Apollinaire realised that there was nothing to be gained by staying on in Nimes, despite the fact that he belonged to a cadre of officer candidates in training there, and he went straight to the Front as a gunner private. His

love for Lou took the shape of delving into reminiscence. He felt

all alone and began to write to whoever he felt could keep up his

spirits by entering into correspondence with him. He remembered a

chance meeting with a girl in the train when he was on his way back from seeing Lou in early January. He dug up her address and

sent her a postcard. This was the beginning of his romance with

Madeleine Pages which lasted almost a year and a half, one which he kept secret from Lou and which he pursued to the extent of becoming engaged to Madeleine in August 1915.

Madeleine's friendship was far more solid and this probably

meant more to Guillaume than the purely physical attraction of

Louise. Nevertheless the traumatic effect of his wound in the

spring of 1916 which brought on a state of acute depression,

combined with his permanent return to Paris (since he had been

excused further active service as an infantry officer) together 41 with the opportunities he now had to renew his old friendships, had the effect of cooling off his relationship with Madeleine.

Apollinaire's many letters and the poems to Madeleine have been edited by Adema16 and provide interesting reading.

The poet's output of twenty-one poems during the period

April to June 1915 was printed on a duplicating machine in the office of his battery. The title of this collection "Case d'armons" stems from the artilleryman's equivalent of a sailor's ditty box which was located on the limber or gun carriage. Only twenty-five copies were made. Louise de Coligny again provided the raison d'etre for nine in this set of poems. Some of these

form part of the anthology of seventy five Po£mes A T,ouf alluded to earlier. "Reconnaissance" was also sent to her, but the econ• omical Guillaume inscribed it in an early letter to Madeleine, who received the rest of the poems of a personal nature.

Apollinaire the soldier found material nearby for his remaining poems in this group, which treat mostly of military matters.

The poet seems to have been out of touch with the publishing

fraternity, so he took the step of sending most of the poems in the Call i grammes collection to his friends. He was then able to recover the copies he needed to make up the collection, which was not printed until April 1918. This is not surprising since wartime shortages and the absence at the front of so many men he

knew in the artistic world militated against a more normal publication procedure.

Among the recipients of "Case d'armons" was Louise Faure-

Favier, a newspaperwoman whom he had first met in September 1912. 42

She was able to provide a means of contacting Marie Laurencin.

In her book Souvenirs snr Guillaume Apollinaire,17 she quotes at length from letters received from him:

Case d'armons est une curiosite bibliographique,

j'espere qu'elle paraitra en volume typographic et avec

"Et moi aussi je suis peintre" qui n'a point paru et

tous mes autres poemes envoyes a mes amies et amis; un

certain nombre de ceux envoyes a Rouveyre, a Dupont, a

Billy y entreront. Je les prie done de garder ces

poemes qui'ils possedent seuls, car je n'en ai pas

trace... mais mes meilleurs poemes et il y en a des

bons vous ne les lirez que si celle qui les a veut

bien, apres la guerre, que je les publie. Et, qui sait

ce que deviennent les choses.

Two matters arise from this quotation. First, Apollinaire

was very mindful that his works would probably be read by post•

erity both on account of his innovative techniques and their

intrinsic merit. Secondly, he was faced with the possibility of

his early death, and it was important that he should put in place

the elements of a system of what could best be described as

literary executors - among whom, in addition to the three men

mentioned in the above extract, one can number Marie Laurencin,

Louise Faure-Favier, Madeleine Pages, and the "Celle qui les a"

who was Louise de Coligny-Chatillon.

The task of anthologists such as Apollinaire himself and

editors like Michel Decaudin and Marcel Adema was thus made

easier. The "Lueurs des tirs" section of the r.al ligrarnrnes collection exemplifies the process of distribution just mentioned. The first five poems were all sent on August 20th 1915 to Mme Faure-Favier for copying and despatch to Marie Laurencin, who was now living in Spain with her German .husband. Apollinaire called this particular set "Le medaillon toujours ferme". The fourth poem in the set was sent in the following month to both Madeleine and

Louise and the last to Madeleine.

The next two poems were sent to the two Louises and

Madeleine while the rest of the poems in the section were sent to

Madeleine only. The last poem "Ocean de terre" was dated December

1915 and dedicated to the painter Giorgio de Chirico. 44

9. The final years 1916-1918

"Souvenirs" and "L'avenir" were the last war poems sent by the poet to Madeleine. In fact he was to demand their return and all the other ones on the pretext of wanting them for inclusion in a collection to be published. The request was made in a quite curt letter dated April 12th and a very peremptory telegram two weeks later. The end of this romance was in sight. One cannot help being struck by the evasive tone of Apollinaire's remaining letters, particularly one dated August 26th 1916,18 by which time he had virtually recovered from the series of operations on his skull.

Ne viens pas surtout, ca me donnerait trop d'emotion.

Ne m'ecris pas des lettres tristes surtout non plus ca

me terrifie.

Envoie-moi mes notes... ma bague cachet en or..

Although the period of convalescence was fairly long, visits by his pre-War friends tended to accelerate his cure. Not sur• prisingly he began to pay court to the ladies who came to visit him. Among those was the pretty red head, Jacqueline Kolb, whom he had not seen since a brief meeting in 1914. Her real solici• tude for him sparked the latent fires, so that by the end of the summer of 1917 he was able to tell Louise Faure-Favier that he planned to marry "La jolie rousse". The poet and his fiancee spent a few days in the village of Barbizon south-east of Paris in April 1918 with the kind Louise, and they were married a

fortnight later on May 2nd.19 45

Major works of poetry during the last three years were the five short sad pieces in the booklet Vitam impendere amori; and, separately, "Tristesse d'une etoile"(1916), a sort of bridge between Madeleine and Jacqueline, also permeated with sadness, the very complex "La Victoire" of 1917 and finally "La jolie

Rousse" of 1918. These last three poems were included in the "La tete etoilee" section of the Calligrammes collection.

Apollinaire's interests turned more and more towards the theatre and fiction during this period.

Apollinaire quickly regained the reputation of being a leader of the Avant-garde which.comprised, among others, men of letters such as Pierre Reverdy and Pierre Albert-Birot, young ^aspirants' like Andre Breton and Philippe Soupault, and others distinguished in the fields of music and drama.

His convalescence at the Italian hospital in Paris allowed for a certain amount of liberty, so that even at the end of July

1916 he was able to attend various salons,, matinees and the like.

His bandaged head and his Croix de Guerre made him into a sort of darling of Paris society. In the meantime he had the leisure to think about the direction in which his work should be headed. In a letter to Laurent Tailhade written in November 1916 and discovered by Adema,20 he expressed himself thus:

... Mon esthetique serait si vous voulez de bStir sur

la base solide de ce qui jusqu'ici a constitue le gout

un monument audacieux pour lequel ne manquent point les

materiaux nouveaux. "Sur des pensers nouveaux faisons

des vers antiques." C'est cela meme etre moderne, mais s'efforcer d'etre digne de ce qu'ont'fait les anciens.

C'est je crois ce qu'a realise Shakespeare...

In December 1916 the poet's many friends decided that the publication of his Le Poete assassine called for a special celebration in the form of a riotous luncheon, the menu for which featured - after due modification by Apollinaire himself - such delicacies as "Meditations esthetiques en salade" and "Aretin de chapon a 1'Heresiarque".

Pierre Reverdy, the director of the new periodical devoted to the propagation of the arts in both Montmartre and

Montparnasse and appropriately entitled "Nord-Sud" as a link between the two centres, had this to say about Apollinaire in the opening number dated March 1917:21

, Naguere, les jeunes poetes allerent trouver Verlaine

pour le tirer de l'obscurite. Quoi d'etonnant que nous

ayons juge le moment venu de nous grouper autour de

Guillaume Apollinaire? Plus que quiconque aujourd'hui

il a trace des routes neuves, ouvert de nouveaux

horizons. II a droit a toute notre ferveur, a toute

notre admiration.

Apollinaire had long nurtured a desire to put on a play. An invitation to write programme notes for the. ballet "Parade", a creation of Cocteau, Massine, Erik Satie and Picasso, in May 1917 led him to present Les Mamelles de Tiresias in the following month, in which 11 surrealism"", a word he coined and first used in the preface to the play was given full play. The interest in the theatre and the cinema seemed to displace poetry at least par- 47 tially, but Apollinaire chose to entitle his major critical anal• ysis of the new trends as "L'esprit nouveau et les poetes", a lecture which he delivered in November of the same year, thereby representing the crystallization of the ideas expressed to

Tailhade two years earlier.

The spring of,1917 was also noteworthy because Apollinaire's military status was clarified. • He was invalided out of the Army on May 11th 1917 and seconded first to the War Ministry and later to the Colonial Ministry as a Press censor. These sedentary jobs were not particularly onerous, but involved long hours at his desk, which meant that his creative activities had to be crammed into his spare time.

All this activity and the preparation of the

"Calligrammes" collection for publication - the final version was printed in April 1918 - exacted its toll on Apollinaire's constitution. He was grossly overweight as a result of post• operative inactivity and at the same time physically weak. A bout of pneumonia in January 1918 aggravated the condition and led in the end to his succumbing to the virulent strain of influenza which devastated Europe in the fall of 1918.

Apollinaire was not to taste the fruits of victory. On November

9th, with the fall of Kaiser Wilhelm assured, the man of

letters who had exercised his charm over so many, died peacefully with the Paris populace outside his garret apartment

screaming "Conspuez Guillaume!" The list of mourners at the

funeral (which took place two days after the Armistice was

signed) reads like a Who's Who of the best and brightest men and 48 women in every field of arts and letters in the revolutionary years that followed the Great War of 1914-1918.22 NOTES: CHAPTER 1

1 Guillaume Apollinaire, Oeuvres completes vol.3 (Paris:

Balland & Lecat, 1966) 98.

2 Marcel Adema, Guillaume Apollinaire: Le mal-aime (Paris

Plon, 1952) 11.

3 A.Toussaint Luca, Guillaume Apollinaire: Souvenirs d'un ami d'enfance, (Monaco: Editions du Rocher 1954).

4 Marcel Adema, Guillaume Apollinaire, (Paris: La Table

Ronde, 1968) 41-49.

5 Adema, Guillaume Apollinaire: Le mal-aime, 11.

6 J.R.Lawler, Mercure de France, (fevrier 1, 1955): 35.

7 Adema, Guillaume Apollinaire, 117/119.

8 Adema, Guillaume Apollinaire, 136.

• 9 Andre Salmon, Souvenirs Sans Fin, 2, (Paris: Gallimard,

1956) 48-59.

10 Apollinaire, Oeuvres poetiques, 1035-7.

11 Adema, Guillaume Apollinaire, 183.

12 Paris-Journal June 23 1914; quoted by Adema in

Guillaume Apollinaire 233. 13 Montjoie, January/February 1914; quoted by L.C.Breunig

& J.-CI. Chevalier joint eds. T.es Peintres Cubistes (Paris:

Hermann, 1965) 136.

14 Guillaume Apollinaire, Chroniques d'Art (Paris: Galli- mard, 1960) 268.

15 Georges Duhamel, Mercure de France (16 June 1913): 800.

16 Apollinaire, Tendre r.nmme le souvenir.

17 Louise Faure-Favier, Souvenirs sur Guillaume Apolli•

naire, (Paris: Bernard Grasset, 1945) 127.

18 Apollinaire, Tendre comme le souvenir. 350.

19 Faure-Favier, 183-197.

20 Adema, Guillaume Apollinaire. 293.

21 Adema, Guillaume Apollinaire. 300.

22 Faure-Favier, 208-209. 51

CHAPTER 2

APOLLINAIRE'S ADOLESCENT POETRY, 1896-1899

The poetry written during Apollinaire's adolescence strongly reflects the religious fervour instilled in him by the Marianist fathers. The Virgin Mary was inevitably invoked in his prayers.

Apollinaire described this period in his life in the following lines from "Zone":

Tu es tres pieux et avec le. plus ancien de tes camarades

Rene Dalize

Vous n'aimez rien tant que les pompes de 1'Eglise

Vous priez toute la nuit dans la chapelle du college.

"AURORE D'HIVER" (0.P.,710-1896)

This poem provides early evidence of the darker side of

Apollinaire's persona with its image of,a still-born Sun. He was pre-occupied with death from an early age and considered winter

as emblematic of it. 52

"TRIPTYQUE DE L'HOMME" (1896)

This series of poems which comprise "Les Poltrons"

(O.P.,711), "La Maison de cristal" (O.P.,712) and

"L'Orgueilleux", (O.P.,712) reflect the depth of the boy's reading. The Arthurian legends formed part of the fabric of mythology which Apollinaire will tailor to suit his inspiration; whether in prose (L'Enchanteur pourrissant) or in poetry ("Zone") to give just two examples. How Apollinaire managed to obtain these books while still on the Riviera, i.e. before he first went to Paris and had access to the Bibliotheque Mazarine, is a question that deserves some research.

"MORT DE PAN" (O.P.,707 - 1897)

After reviewing the old pagan world whose gods are shaken when they hear the pious christian hymns, the poet sings a glorious paean of praise to the Newborn King:

Cependant qu'une voix crie au monde confus:

Vesus va naitre enfin et son regne commence;

'II nait pauvre a Bethleem; son royaume est immense:

'Pan! le Grand Pan est mort et les dieux ne sont plus!'

"LES DOUKHOBORS" (O.P.,715-1897)

This work shows yet another side of the young poet's character, a disposition to espouse causes. He was shocked by the ill treatment meted out to these pacifist Russian peasants. The poet was an ardent Dreyfusard. He later revolted against accepted

codes of conduct, established tenets and rules of poetic form. He had little use for ancient shibboleths and his iconoclastic tendencies were to result in the future publication of the Anti-

Tradition Manifesto and his general avant-gardist attitude.

"MARDI GRAS" (0.P. , 708-1898)

The bright Mediterranean colours likened to jewels were to remain as part of the poet's subconscious for the rest of his life.

"LECTURE" (Q.P.,714-1898)

"Lecture" bears the signature xGuillaume Apollinaire', although its content would indicate that the poet's other nom de plume, ^Guillaume Macabre', would seem to be more in line.

Apollinaire would appear to have been haunted by a morbid dream of a black-clad monk and a mysterious woman clothed in silk. The poem reflects the young man's makeup at the time, a blend of

religious fervour, sexual longing and an abhorrent fear of the

female sex.

The religious thread also runs through two of the major poems

at the close of the century, "L'Ermite" and "Le Larron".

"L'Ermite" in particular has an affinity with "Lecture."

"FAGNES DE WALLONIE" (0.P.,370-1899) and "ELEGIE DU VOYAGEUR AUX

PIEDS BLESSES (0.P.,337-1899)

This pair of poems have much in common, both deal with the

poet's walks in the Ardennes, both indicate an interest in

nature, and both show that the impecunious young man's shoes are sadly in need of repairs. The symbolism has yet to be tainted with the self-mocking tendency of Apollinaire's later poems. 55

CHAPTER 3

THE TURN OF THE CENTURY POEMS 1899-1901

The winter of 1899 was very productive, three major poems were drafted, namely "L'Ermite, "Merlin et la vieille femme", and

"Le Larron". Work was also done on T/Enchanteur pnnrrissant.

There is is a religious theme that runs through the works of this period, but a disenchantment and loss of faith begins to enter into them. There is also an understandable feeling of loneliness that seems to pervade the three major poems.

"L'ERMITE" (O.P.,100-1899)

This poem is a variation on the "Thais" theme made famous by

Anatole France and Flaubert's "La Tentation de Saint Antoine".

The poet sees himself as a religious man held in thrall by lust. His first amatory experiences in Stavelot were frustrating, and it was but a short step for him to look down on women, if not to despise them as being the embodiment of his self-loathing, a result of his inability to reach the heights of religious experi• ence. The poem indicates in the sixth stanza that the poet might 56 have assuaged his libido in the same manner as many a lonely young person. Young Apollinaire prays to the Lord to help him:

Seigneur faites seigneur qu'un jour je m'enamoure. and even blasphemes:

J'ai veille trente nuits sous les lauriers roses

As-tu sue du sang Christ dans Gethsemani

Crucifie reponds Dis non Moi je le nie

Car j'ai trop espere en vain 1'hematidrose.

Poor Apollinaire, the best he could come up with was a nose bleed like the little girl that he remembered from his readings of Rimbaud's "Le bateau ivre."

Apollinaire had the priceless gift however of turning off his misery to laugh at himself, even the pathetic plea in the

first quotation follows a punning play on words.

The poet's use of rare words started with the turn-of-the-

century poems; for example we find the word "aemeres" in the twelfth stanza referring to the saints to whom no saint's days have been allotted. By his own admission wordiness tempts him:

Trop de tentations malgre moi me caressent

Tentations de lune et de logomachies.

Apollinaire speaks of another temptation:

Et je marche et je fuis 6 nuit Lilith ulule

Et clame vainement et je vois de grands yeux

S'ouvrir tragiquement....

The "Lilith" theme had already been used on an almost word

for word basis in "Lecture",^ the boyhood poem which is likewise

permeated with religion, sexual frustration and fear. 57

"La Maison de cristal", already mentioned, besides including a reference to Lilith, also featured the symbolist imagery of the mysterious dark forest, repeated almost verbatim in "L'Ermite":

La nuit les bois sont noirs et se meurt l'espoir vert.

A vivid example of Apollinaire's propensity to use portions of prior works to reinforce a current one. A similar borrowing procedure shows up in the stanza:

Mes kilometres longs Mes tristesses plenieres

Les squelettes de doigts terminant les sapins

Ont egare ma route et mes reves poupins

Souvent j'ai dormi au sol des sapinieres. the first and final lines were taken from "Fagnes de Wallonie" while the two middle ones come from the "Stavelot" untitled poem

"0 mon coeur j'ai connu" (0.P.p.521).

To sum up, the poem despite its themes of disenchantment, weariness, religious rapture, and blasphemy, illustrates the state of mind of the somewhat confused young man who in the words of Mme Durry, is:

...tourmente de concupiscences malgre les mortifications

et dont les prieres et les cris n'ont point rencontre

Dieu.

"MERLIN ET LA VIEILLE FEMME" (0.P.,88-1899)

In "Merlin et la vieille femme" Apollinaire was inspired by ancient Celtic legends, particularly those concerning Merlin the

seer and magician, born of the unholy union of a devil and a virtuous woman, but subsequently redeemed by baptism into the 58

Christian faith. Merlin was supposed to be blessed with a memory of all things past, a seer's gift of prophecy, a capability of being everywhere at the same time and a capacity to change his outward form.

This blend of ancient legend and Christianity is the very wellspring of Apollinaire's inspiration at this period of his life and several years were to pass before religion ceased to be a major force.

The poem's opening lines provide an arresting picture of the start of another day in the life of Merlin:

Le soleil ce jour-la s'etalait comme un

Ventre maternel qui saignait lentement sur le ciel

La lumiere est ma mere 6 lumiere sanglante

Les nuages coulaient comme un flux menstruel.

Unlike their British counterparts French poets are not constrained by a false sense of morality; they do not shy away from clinical descriptions if they provide a powerful image.

Despite the fact that the poem seems to flow more evenly than "L'Ermite", possibly on account of its narrative form, the obscurity of the images and thought processes tends to hold up the ordinary reader. Apollinaire's gift for mystification is given full play. Symbolism is spelt with a capital XS' to such a degree that M. Renaud detects a send-up of that movement.1

Thanks to the work of Mme Durry, Miss Davies, Scott Bates,

M. Renaud, J.C.Chevalier and Richard Stamelman the veil of mystery akin to a magician's dark cloth has been lifted, though only partially. 59

Mme Durry has explained that Morgane is Merlin's equal,

since he has taught her all his spells and enchantments; in

return she is his memory which will outlive him. In stressing the

similarity between L' F.nchanteur pourrissant, his early novella on the same theme, and the poem, she draws attention to the opening

line of the former:

Que deviendra mon coeur parmi ceux qui s'entre'aiment?

This is surely the question Apollinaire asks himself at the

start of his poetic career; it is at the same time an echo of the voyeuristic lines in "L'Ermite":

Aucun pauvre desir ne gonfle ma poitrine

Lorsque je vois le soir les couples s'entrelacant.

The second point Mme Durry makes is that the poem is placed

at a crossroads, "un poeme-carrefour".2 The point at which a new

direction must be taken, the crossroads is also a place where the

old narrow twisting lanes of hidebound poetry and religion,

"couverts d'ossements", cross the freeways of modernity in the

creative arts. It is here that Merlin's son, Apollinaire's future

persona, born of his union with Morgane, illegitimate like him,

must make his way alone, his head held high, South on the road to

Rome where Merlin, • owing to his connection with satanic beings,

may not go. Merlin takes the road to the East to certain death at

the hands of Morgane's alter ego, Viviane, but he will

immortalize himself with his gift of poetry:

Je m'eterniserai sous l'aubepine en fleurs.

Scott Bates goes further by stating that Morgane has become

the poet's muse, and his son, his revolutionary prophetic vision, 60 thereby enabling him to create his works of art.3

It matters not whether the son is a creature of flesh and blood or merely a shadow that will follow him always:

Qu'il monte de la fange ou soit une ombre d'homme

II sera bien mon fils mon ouvrage immortel.

The concept of the cross roads has an even deeper meaning for Apollinaire. The poet is on the threshold of his career as a writer. He must decide whether to make writing his life's work, and if so, whether to concentrate on poetry or prose, or even to give up all thought of literary activity and pursue some other occupation such as a banker or stockbroker. It is as if he stood at a doorway and saw roads leading in every direction.

This multi-directional imagery is further complicated by that of the thprnless rose of the winds; an example of

Apollinaire's infinite capacity for bewildering his readers. Many explanations, some far-fetched, have been offered, first by Durry who identifies the rose as being a compass rose complete with cardinal points although there is no real connection with navigation and the lack of thorns on the rose as being some sort of pre-christian symbol, a wreath perhaps.4

The exegetic challenge has been taken up by Richard Henry

Stamelman who has devoted two and a half pages of close print to the subject in striving to identify the two-dimensional compass

rose with the beautiful three dimensional flower whose magnetic

attraction is altogether different.5

An entry in the Glossary of Reference forming part of Scott

Bates's book provides a totally scatological definition of the Rose des vents, this time three dimensional. However it is unlikely that Apollinaire, at this stage of his career, would have been been so blunt, despite his interest in anatomy, particularly of the female form divine. In any case it is difficult to establish the connection.6

It is conceivable that some eminent Apollinarians may have

lost their way by relying too much on the compass. At the turn of the century the sport of ballooning was at its height, since the daring young men on their flying machines had yet to compete for the attentions of the thrill-seeking public. Balloons depend on a

secure knowledge of prevailing winds, on the part of balloonists,

if any kind of passage making is to be attempted. Hence it is

conceivable that statistics of prevailing winds over time at any

given place were kept. The simplest graphic description of such

information takes the shape of a wind rose on which the length of

an arrow indicates the' frequency of the wind in days per year,

say, for each direction being studied. Apollinaire's fascination

with flight is well known, so it is not unreasonable to connect

the image of the wind "blowing where it listeth" with the normal

hesitation of a traveller at a cross roads.

A much simpler explanation can be arrived at if the second

stanza of the poem is read thus:

...nulle fleur...sinon la rose

...sans epine n'a fleuri l'hiver.

This leads one directly to the Christmas Rose, (Helleborus

foetidus), which grows prolifically in France, it is not part of

the genus Rosa and certainly has no thorns. Unlike the rose, its 62 smell is unpleasant, a characteristic it shares with the hawthorn whose smell, in the spring, is believed to portend death.

The combination of memory, the true lessons to be learned from the past, and love, the motive force of all that is exciting and revolutionary .in the future, are at the very core of

Apollinaire's philosophy, one which stayed with him right up to his tragic death.

During his short life Apollinaire had a very real fear of death. He seemed to sense, even as young man, that he had but a

little time to achieve what he felt he had to do. It will be recalled that Apollinaire used the pen-name "Guillaume Macabre"

for his earliest poems, thereby stressing his morbid preoccupa• tion with death.

Besides taking up the the cause of modern painting after meeting Picasso, Apollinaire had a lifelong interest in Dance as an art form whether, a crude "danse du ventre", (his poetic suns take pleasure moving their navels to and fro) or in the more sophisticated world of the Ballet, (he wrote a preface to

"Parade"). "La belle epoque" was an exciting time for the

followers of Terpsichore. It is not surprising therefore that the aging Morgane seduces Merlin by dancing before him.

In brief the poem serves as a kind of preface wherein the poet has set out the ground rules of his future poetic activity

and a discerning reader of his subsequent works cannot help being

struck with their correlation within this early poem, nor with the evidence of character traits which would manifest themselves more forcibly in the future. A partial list would be: an interest 63 in medieval legend, a capacity for mystification, the humour even in a dramatic situation, the realisation that traditional poetry would have to undergo a radical change, the willingness to sound the depths of memory, the growing awareness that he had the gift of prophecy, the interest in dance, the morbid outlook on death, the awareness of modern developments such as aviation, and the lack of any sign of hesitancy in describing anatomical detail.

"LE LARRON" (0.P.,91-1899)

This interesting poem describes the situation of a lonely young foreigner cast by the vagaries of chance on the shore of a pleasure-loving city-state,- i.e. Paris, where he knows no one but would like to be accepted by the notoriously insular members of

French society both social and literary. It was in fact, a family that belonged to a minority group, in this case the Molinas, who were Portuguese Jews, who first befriended Apollinaire.

The young man, devoid of experience and the usual skills, and driven by hunger, in both the physical and social sense, to committing a crime, is a very real description of the actual desperation of Apollinaire, so aptly described in these lines:

Maraudeur etranger malheureux malhabile

Voleur voleur que ne demandais-tu ces fruits

Mais puisque tu as faim que tu es en exil

II pleure il est barbare et bon pardonnez-lui.

The poet next reflects on his parentage: he sees himself as

a love-child created like Aphrodite who, according to legend, was

begotten of the part of the anatomy of Uranus that was cruelly 64 removed by Chronos; or believes, by a reversal of roles, that he was the product of his mother's dalliance with a partner whose identity remained a riddle.

Issu de l'ecume des mers comme Aphrodite.

Ton pere fut un sphinx et ta mere une nuit.

The stranger arouses the interest of a female member of

society - Apollinaire never doubted his capacity to captivate the gentler sex - and is presented an amulet, a love-token, by the

lady who then proceeds to ask him veiled questions regarding his

sexuality. His indirect reply, "Je suis Chretien," indicates a degree of uncertainty which is seized upon by the commentators in the choir who underline the wavering in his belief in the

Immaculate Conception and lack of earnestness in his protestation

of faith:

Les ventres pourront seuls nier l'aseite.

Et plus aucun de nous ne croirait tes recits.

One need only peer fifteen years into the future to have

proof that, in his relations with Louise de Coligny-Chatillon,

Apollinaire adored "un signe obscene" and that his actual sexual

relations with Lou and his desire for similar relations with

Madeleine had:

Cette furtive ardeur des serpents qui s'entre-aiment

The poem ends with further evidence of his weakening belief

in the Christian faith as symbolised by the palms, the burden of

the Cross and in his unwillingness to reinforce his faith at the 65 court of king Abgar V by journeying to Edessa. There is doubt too about his capacity to write poetry and to influence women.

Plagued by doubt, Apollinaire asks himself three questions in stanzas 27 to 29.

Que n'avait-il la voix et les jupes d'Orphee

Et les femmes la nuit feignant d'etre des taures.

Que n'avait-il la voix et les jupes d'Orphee

La pierre prise au foie d'un vieux coq de Tanagre

Au lieu du roseau triste et du funebre faix.

Que n'alla-t-il vivre a la cour d'Edesse.

The poet sees a bleak future lying ahead of him as he wanders alone" with only his shadow to accompany him; he has lost the warmth of the sun in fact his whole life will consist of a rapid alternance between sunny happiness and the shadow of despair.7 The choir in "Le larron" underlines the fact that

Apollinaire's shadow was very much a part of him:

L'ombre equivoque et tendre est le deuil de ta chair

Et sombre elle est humaine....

He can find no opportunity to indulge his desires, he is dogged by his perennial shadow, his ever-present misfortune, and has

only a semblance of religious faith to support him. He appeals to

his Italian mother for help but all he gets is her lament for the

situation they find themselves in.

Va-t-en errer credule et roux avec ton ombre

Tu n'as de signe que le signe de la croix 66

Ouir ta voix ligure en nenie 6 maman

"Le Larron" is important as an expression of Apollinaire's inner feelings concerning his acceptance into Parisian society, his latent sexuality and his growing ambivalence towards religion.

Mme Durry has made the valid point that Apollinaire, like

Eve in the Garden of Eden, wished to partake of the fruit growing on the tree of life and of happiness in Art but was prevented from doing so because the austere Christian religion does not recognize Paradise as being on earth but only in Heaven. Pagan religions provide for earthly happiness, on the other hand, and the magnet of Christianity only makes him diminished and sad.8

F.J.Carmody, in his percipient analysis, has established the link between "Le Larron" and "L'Ermite", separately, to the prev• iously mentioned works of Flaubert and Anatole France. For example the Thief is identified with Paphnuce who steals Thais, a precious fruit, from her admirers; he likens the interlaced couples to the guests at the banquet, and traces similarities between "Thais" and "La Tentation de Saint Antoine".

Scott Bates on the other hand, refuses to acknowledge "Le

Larron" as a testament of the poet and brings in the notion of the thief as a sort of Anti-christ. Apollinaire undoubtedly was influenced by his discussions on religious topics with the Jewish

Molina family and his research and reading of various versions of the story of the Wandering Jew and other legends, but not to the extent suggested by Scott Bates.10

Marc Poupon is much nearer the mark in the summation to his 67 article,11 when he states:

"Le Larron" pose sans le resoudre de facon definitive le

probleme majeur d'Apollinaire depuis qu'il a perdu la foi

de l'enfance: l'enigme de sa destinee.

The fact that he was a bastard and virtually penniless contributed to his renunciation of the Church as such, but he never lost his admiration of Christ who seemed in his view propelled by an inner power in the same way as he felt himself moved later on in life. 68

NOTES: CHAPTER 3

1 Philippe Renaud, Lecture d' Apol 1 inai re (Lausanne: L'Age d'Homme, 1969) 52.

2 Marie-Jeanne Durry, Guillaume Apollinaire Alcools. v.l

(Paris: S.E.D.E.S., 1964) 214-219

3 Scott Bates, Guillaume Apollinaire (New York: Twayne

Publishers Inc, 1967) 71.

4 Marie-Jeanne Durry, 1, 220

5 Richard Howard Stamelman, The Drama of Self in Guillaume

Apol1inaire's 'Alcools' (Chapel Hill: University of North

Carolina, 1976) 84-86.

6 Scott Bates, 167.

7 Margaret Davies, Apollinaire (Edinburgh and London:

Oliver and Boyd, 1964) 53.

8 Marie-Jeanne Durry, 1, 223

9 Francis Carmody, The evolution of Apol1inaire's poetics

(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1963) 13-16.

10 Scott Bates, 34-35.

11 Marc Poupon, "'Le Larron', essai d'exegese", Revue des

1pftre.g mndernes. 166-169 (1967) 35-51. 69

CHAPTER 4

THE EARLY YEARS IN PARIS 1899-1901

"LA PORTE"(0.P.,87-1901)

This short work is probably the first poem whose origin is entirely Parisian as opposed to the Merlin - Ermite -Larron trilogy whose inspiration may have been derived at least in part from walks in the woods near Stavelot. Much controversy surrounds the actual date of composition since the- earliest rough draft available is contained on a scrap of paper dated 1906, despite the fact that it is heavily worked over, it is probably a copy of an earlier version since the content suggests that it dates from the time that Apollinaire was searching for work.1

The door half opened, as if in a sneer upon his return from a fruitless search or from demeaning temporary work, symbolizes the many frustrations Apollinaire must have experienced as he looked so desperately for a job. As in "Le Larron" he cries out to his mother:

Qu'est-ce que cela peut me faire 6 ma maman

D'etre cet employe pour qui seul rien n'existe. Humble que je suis qui ne suis rien qui vaille.

The poor young man whose mother always favoured her younger son Albert got only a curt reply that was akin to a judge sentencing him to hard labour for the rest of his life which is in fact what he had to do until his untimely death.

Enfant je t'ai donne ce que j'avais travaille

The gift she refers to can only be her mercurial disposition and her strong sexuality, hardly the best equipment for a job hunter or steady worker. Apollinaire knew this, witness the line he deleted in the 1906 transcript:

Je t'ai pris mon peche 6 ma mere.

Apollinaire's only recourse was to turn from the dark shadow of penury to his memories of a Mediterranean now darkened despite the brightness of the exotic fish swimming therein.

"La Porte" might have affinities with two other poems that deal with doors namely "Hotels" and "Montparnasse" (O.P.,353) but these do not have the key words "sourit terriblement".

"HOTELS"(O.P.,147-1901)

This is yet another poem which is difficult to date, the catalogue of unsavory characters living in his lowly doss-house has very much in common with a graphic description of his plight contained in a letter dated July 1902 to a friend whom he had known since his boyhood years, James Onimus,2 wherein he lists his fellow workers doing copy work in a publicity agency in 1900.

(The quotation is taken as printed, complete with the errors of 71 spelling and grammar committed by Apollinaire.)

...des repris de justices, d'anciens avocats sans le sous,

des aventuriers retour des mines d'or. Je vois ceux qui

veulent s'engager pour le Transvaal sans le pouvoir et me

mele a cette plebe de meurt de faim ... la patronne de

1'etablissement brulant du papier d'Armenie pour ne pas

sentir leur odeur.

"CLAIR DE LUNE" (0.P.,137-1901)

In these rhyming alexandrines which were first published as

"Lunaire", Apollinaire is revealed as a star-gazer and lover of nature. He sees Arcturus as a star so bright that its rays penetrate like a bee's sting. The poet was probably aware that in order to properly locate this star one must prolong the tail of the Great Bear. This same tail has all the appearance of a bee's stinger or possibly the similar appendage of a scorpion.

The "rose des vents" reappears, in this case it fulfils a multiple role as a flower target for the bees and, as the Pole

Star at the very center of the northern astronomical hemisphere, a place from which the winds can blow in every direction.

The connection between the moon and honey may have been the result of the direct translation of the English word "honeymoon" into "lune de miel" with the same meaning. Apollinaire, as is well known, loved food; so it is not surprising that he describes the villages and orchards greedily absorbing the luminous manna from heaven.

The poem is a fair example of Apollinaire's fascination with 72 word-association or, to use his own term, "logomachie", and is at the same time almost a skit on Symbolism. The poet goes so much

further in this direction than his ' fin-de-siecle' predecessors.

"LES DICTS D'AMOUR A LINDA" (0.P.,318-336,-1901)

It is convenient to group all the poems written from April

30th to July 3rd 1901 under this title since the inspiration

flowed from Apollinaire's relations with the Molina family and

Linda in particular.3 In general they tell us very little about the poet himself except that he was able to produce poems of love and vindictiveness almost at the drop of a hat. They amply supply proof that the poet knew he had the capacity to do this, witness the lines from "Je vis un soir la zezayante" (O.P .p. 3.27) which he was to assert even more forcibly in the future:

Moi qui sais des lais pour les reines

Et des chansons pour les sirenes.

A curious feature of this group is that Apollinaire was very

circumspect about the content of the love poems, they avoid the

slightest hint of eroticism, for fear of offending Linda. However the poet in the "grudge" poem "Adieux"(0.P. p.332) lifted the ban

and brings forth images such as a wish to suck the moon, the only nipple in the night, and his successors as the lady's suitors, as being whip-wielding sadists, not to mention the probability of

her reaching an ugly old age with a slack belly and crows feet

about her eyes! His disenchantment is complete and all too

evident. 73

NOTES: CHAPTER 4

1 Michel Decaudin, Le. dossier d' Al cools, (Paris: Minard;

Geneve: Droz, 1963) 142-143.

2 "Les lettres a un ami d'enfance, de Guillaume Apollinaire"

Les Lett.res Francaisss (13 Dec 1951): 4. 74

CHAPTER 5

GERMANY, THE RHINELAND AND ANNIE PLAYDEN 1901-1902

The twelve months starting in August 1901 were remarkable in many ways; Apollinaire fell hopelessly in love, he made a grand tour of Central Europe and what he saw and felt provided the

inspiration if not always the final form of at least twenty nine poems. The entire poetic output was influenced either by the

Rhineland by the surrounding country side or by the customs, history and mythology of the western part of Germany.

It is convenient to divide this great efflorescence of poetry into two main divisions, those poems which are largely narrative or descriptive with the poet merely as a recorder or

observer and those where these documentary elements are combined with references to the poet's Self. The latter will be referred

to as Personal poems hereafter.

Apollinaire rejected some of his Rhenish poems as unsuitable

for publication in Alcools because he thought they were too

personal or too descriptive, they appeared posthumously in the XL

y a and T,e Guetteur m£lancol i que anthologies. The subtitle "Rhenanes" appeared in AlCQQls and Le Gustteur melancolique in respect of some of the poems as a group heading but others though obviously of Rhenish or German inspiration stood on their own.

The narrative-descriptive poems

In some of the Rhenish poems the narrative-descriptive elements are more in evidence than the personal ones, consequently they can be dealt with as a group in this discussion. They have in common abundant evidence of

Apollinaire's exceptionally acute powers of observation; his ear for German and Hebrew speech patterns despite his own lack of fluency in these languages is particularly noteworthy.

Scenery - per se - or architectural beauty did not interest him in the same way that it would interest an ordinary tourist;

Apollinaire looked beyond, to the very soul of the inhabitants of the countries he visited, to the ancient myths that influenced their daily activities; to the Rheinlieder, songs passed from generation to generation, to religion which affected their daily lives and noted how some of their religious observances were grafted on to prehistoric rites. Apollinaire identified himself with wanderers of all kinds. Gypsies had a special fascination for him as did the old, old story of Isaac Laquedem, the

Wandering Jew.

"PLONGEON" (0.P.,539-1901)

The Rhine river is directly referred to in this poem which

has has undertones of sadness - "vapeurs pleins de mouchoirs" - 76 and narcissism - "Dans l'eau d'acier ton ombre te precedera".

"LA SYNAGOGUE" (0.P.f113-1901)

The earliest of the Rhineland poems, it dates from

September. The Psalms in their original language are chanted by two old rogues, a moment before, they were cursing each other and non-believers generally as they walked beside the Rhine; the river, now personified, is smiling at their antics:

lis se disputent et crient des choses qu'on ose a peine

traduire

Le vieux Rhin souleve sa face ruisselante et se detourne

pour sourire.

"La Synagogue" reflects the profound knowledge of Hebraic religion.and customs acquired during the relatively short period when he was a frequent visitor with the Molina family.

"LE VENT NOCTURNE" (0.P.,121-1901), "LES SAPINS" (0.P.,121-1901) and "CREPUSCULE" (0.P.,537-1901).

Despite the fact that the first two were written in Neu

Gliick which is situated some distance from the Rhine, they, together with the third which was written beside the river at

Honnef, are all steeped in riverine lore, populated with nixes, elves, sirens and magicians learned in the healing arts.

Apollinaire's fascination with the magical world reappears in these three poems. The 1901 "Crepuscule" is distinct from the poem of the same name (O.P.,64-1907). 77

"SCHINDERHANNES" (0.P.117-1901) and "LES FEMMES" (0.P.123-1901)

These two poems are similar in that Apollinaire has used snippets of conversation to form part of the poem, they are thus forerunners of later poemes-conversations such as "Lundi Rue

Christine". This pair of Rhenish poems are fine examples of

Apollinaire's genius in conjuring up personalities, one can almost feel that the characters are living breathing persons.

"PASSION" (0.P., 536-1901) and "LA VIERGE' A LA FLEUR D'HARICOT DE

COLOGNE" (0.P.,538-1901)

Religious themes, are dominant in these two works. The first has to do with Christ as represented in a roadside shrine in a somewhat irreverent manner. The second concerns the central figure in a triptych with the Infant Jesus on her right arm and a bean blossom in her left hand. It was painted about 1380 by

Meister Wilhelm; the Virgin is flanked by St. Catherine on the left and St. Barbara on the right. It may still be seen in the

Wallraf Richartz Museum in Cologne.1 Guillaume Apollinaire could not resist the punning allusion to his namesake, the painter, whom he suspected of being in love with the blonde who was his model just as he was with the blonde Annie in October of 1901.

One must underline the lack of acceptable reverence in the poet's treatment of these religious subjects. Apollinaire's

disenchantment with religion has already been noted, and these

two poems provide further evidence of the poet distancing himself

from his schoolboy infatuation with religion. 78

"MARIZIBILL" (O.P.,77-1901)

The name is a corruption of "Marie-Sybille", this

interesting poem describes in three almost staccato quintils the pitiful existence of a prostitute condemned to walk the streets until late at night. Apollinaire's perceptive eye misses nothing, the pimp's coarse red face and the fact that he stank of garlic, the girl's expressionless face and the lack of any future for her.

The poem dates from Apollinaire's first visit to Cologne in

October 1901.

"LES BACS" (O.P.,540-1902)

The mournful life of a Rhine ferry-boat man is featured here, It is notable for a cunning use of repetition of key words

like "passer" and "vont et viennent" which are set in a sharply

contrasted frame of religious beliefs and profane words and thoughts. The same contrast is a highlight of "La Synagogue".

"LE DOME DE COLOGNE" (0.P.,542-1902)

The reader is present at the riotous week-end Carnival ending on Shrove Tuesday (February 11th in that particular year -

1902) . This time Apollinaire starts off on an irreligious note.

As he gazes at the majesty of this famous building, he asserts

that God could not care less regarding those who labour for his

greater glory. The fact that there are modern communication

cables strung between the towers makes the edifice an enormous

lute when the winds make the wires vibrate. The summer stillness 79 of the towers is compared to the immobility of storks taking their rest, while the dusting of snow during the winter is likened to the angels plucking the downy feathers of birds.

Meanwhile Marizibill reappears singing a song in her Low

German dialect with her "man" never far away. Other revellers join her and the poet once again records details that would normally be overlooked by a less observant visitor, flowers stuck in rifle barrels, old roues admitting their peccadillos, worried women making offerings of roses on Rosenmontag to celebrate the perpetuation of their womanhood. Apollinaire was haunted by the sexual characteristics that distinguish women from men, this poem affords further evidence this aspect of his character, which has already been noted in the comments on "Merlin et la vieille femme".

Cologne is said to house the relics of the Three Magi and the poet notes that the head of the Carnival makes his confession at their shrine. The poet even brings himself into the picture, like Phoebus-Apollo,he bestrides the tufted clouds with the cathedral crosses as harness and the bell ropes as his bridles.

The poem ends with an invocation to the Virgin Mary to plant the highways with rosebushes so that travellers can say their rosaries. A final punning joke thus ends the poem, a typical

Apollinarian trick.

The poem may be said to lack intrinsic merit but it is none the less a witty piece of journalistic reporting. 80

"ROLAND SECK" (0.P.,351-1902)

Rolandseck is a place situated across the river from Honnef and the island of Nonnenwerth. It is steeped in the lore of the

Middle Ages. This is the site of the castle of Roland,

Charlemagne's Crusader-Knight. The poem shows another facet of the the poet's personality, his interest in modernity;

automobiles are compared to cowardly knights on horseback fleeing

from shadows. At the same time the poet has dreamy reflections on the mythic stories set in the Siebengebirge mountains just east

of Honnef.

"LES VILLES SONT PLEINES" (0.P.,567-1902)

The title is part of the first line of a poem that records

the impressions left in the mind of the young poet as he

travelled through the industrial cities of Germany on one of his

absences from the Milhau household. It is important in that portions of it were taken to provide material for two major poems

on which Apollinaire worked during 1908.

The personal poems

Most of these fall into two broad seasonal groupings, Autumn

and Spring. "La Blanche neige" is the only "Winter" poem while

"Un soir d'ete" originated with "Mille regrets" in the summer of

1902.

"LES COLCHIQUES" (0.P.,60-1901)

This work presents some difficulty as regards dating. It is 81 dated 1902, and Leroy Breunig has placed it as being written between January and August 1902 for this reason. However the common or garden name for Colchicum is Autumn Crocus and the only autumn spent by Apollinaire in the Rhineland was the autumn of

1901 hence September 1901 would seem to be an appropriate date for the moment of inspiration even if the poem was not completed until some time in 1902.

The poem is distinguished by the evidence it displays of

Apollinaire's broad erudition. The Colchicum plant belongs to the melanthiodeae tribe of the lily botanic family, it has pale- purple flowers.2 Colchicine is secreted in the bulb, it is a powerful drug, a specific cure for gout, but dangerous when taken by mammals in large doses. Besides being a violent gastro• intestinal irritant, colchicine is used by botanists to artificially induce polyploidy in other plants. This procedure involves multiplication of chromosomes.3 It is a matter for conjecture whether Apollinaire was aware of this aspect of plant biology which was known to plant breeders before the First World

War. The colchicum plant is a hermaphrodite but it has quite prominent ovaries, so the lines:

lis cueillent les colchiques qui sont comme des meres

Filles de leur filles et sont couleur de tes paupieres. which have fascinated Apollinarians for years as being a typical example of the poet's tendency to cloak his knowledge, may be an

indication of his partial understanding of what are scientific

albeit esoteric facts.

Georges Legros has dealt with the many theories surrounding 82 this strange mother-daughter relationship and is probably on the right track when he seeks a botanical explanation, for example in his observation that the leaves appear the following year after flowering. The flowers are identical year after year, like mother, like daughter.

On the whole one has the impression that the young poet had his mind stuffed with a mass of only partially digested facts which he attempted to relate to what he realised would be an illicit relationship with Annie.4

Attempts to explain away the mysteries surrounding this poem using psycho-critical techniques have been made by Francoise

Dininman and Anne Clancier, but it seems unreasonable to load a poet, who at the age of twenty one was just at the beginning of his poetic career, with such a heavy weight of psycho-analytical baggage.5

Guillaume, on arrival at Honnef, became completely

infatuated with Annie Playden, the English governess of Gabrielle

Milhau. Annie's brother was perhaps the first to comment on her

seductive eyes ringed with purple shadows, so it is not

surprising that Apollinaire immediately sensed the danger lurking therein, in comparing them to the poisonous flowers which had the

same colour chracteristics.

...tes yeux sont comme cette fleur-la

Violatres comme leur cerne et comme cet automne

Et ma vie pour tes yeux lentement s'empoisonne.

Anne Hyde Greet has tied in the word "cerne" with the

difficult "filles de leur filles" relationship. She shows that 83 the related image of the circle, announced by the word "cerne", which translates into "eye-ring" is suggested also by the mothers who are daughters of their daughters. She goes on to say that time (as understood in this context) is circular, the generations repeat, even love repeats.6

Autumn retains its hold on our poet in the same way as it affected his symbolist predecessors, a year later he was to admit in "Signe" (0.P.p.125):

Je suis soumis au Chef du Signe de l'Automne

Mon automne eternelle 6 ma saison mentale.

In a truly Apollinarian volte-face the poet's reverie is disturbed by a group of school children out to gather the pretty flowers, each one like the other and so similar in coloration and in the way they flutter in the breeze to the eyelids of the object of his attentions.

This very short poem should be regarded in the nature of a poetic experiment, Apollinaire tried splitting up the verses differently in the two versions that were published in his lifetime and one gets the impression too, that he was not quite certain of what he was trying to achieve, so we have a mixture of a pastoral and a lover's plaintive song. It would seem therefore that detailed analysis of the work from a structuralist point of view is not likely to throw much light on this poem, if one is attempting to address the problem of interpreting Apolllinaire's personality in particular. 84

"AUTOMNE"(O.P./104-1901)

At first reading seems to be a simple pastoral. It is in

fact one of Apollinaire's most personal poems. It is infused with melancholy in the form of the mist. The peasant sings of love and

infidelity and the two shadowy grey figures are surely

Apollinaire and Anne. Although it was composed early in the

Rhenane cycle, there is a note of foreboding as if the poet knew

in his heart of hearts that his infatuation would only lead to the most personal grief he was ever to experience. Autumn is the

season that is the precursor of winter's death-like stillness and the poem attempts to draw a parallel between his ardent love and

its inevitable end.7

"ELEGIE" (O.P.,534-1901)

Dates from Apollinaire's return to Honnef in late October,

after spending time in Neu Gliick and Cologne; as in the first two examples, there is a note of sadness as the night approaches and the two lovers contemplate a wall plaque, sadly commemorating the victim of a murder that took place nearly three centuries before.

As the light dies, their love lies bleeding; just as

gooseberries acquire their crimson hue, the mountains turn purple

in the dusk, the stars shed tears as they light up the pale

autumn sky and a group of wandering gypsies are heard far away as

they start singing by their campfire.

A train passes with, all its cars lit up as the sad lovers

try to make out the villages sleeping in the dusk.

Apollinaire's evocative powers are given full play and many 85

of his favourite themes are brought forward. There is an element of incantation in this poem and it is easy to visualise

Apollinaire in this romantic setting, trying to explain its

deepest meanings to Annie whose knowledge of French was very

limited.

"RHENANE D'AUTOMNE" (0.P.,119-1901)

Like "Le Dome de Cologne", it fits neatly into any

chronology since reference is made in the third verse to All

Souls Day, (it falls on November 2nd) . The cemetery in the

village of Eich, was close to the gloomy country home of Mme de

Milhau's aunt, Anna von Fisenne, at Krayerhof; the whole family

were staying there, it was the destination of choice in

accordance with German custom on that particular day; Annie and

Guillaume were included in the party which had all the elements

of a picnic. The poem, typically Apollinarian, is full of

surprising elements, the cemetery becomes a farmyard complete

with cocks crowing, asses braying and children playing; ragged

clouds overhead and women's, veils fluttering are compared to

nanny-goat beards!

Weeping willows and rosemary, the funeral flower of

remembrance, crowd the garden-cemetery, like the assortment of

folk of both high and low degree who are buried there. Gypsies

appear once more, this time as stateless refugees who have found

a final though somewhat uncomfortable resting place for their

mortal remains. The sight of fallen leaves reminds the the poet

of amputated hands, the hands of dead loved ones and the hands of 86 his own loved one whom he restrains as she tries to leave this place which horrifies her. Apollinaire almost always becomes an active participant whenever a sight affects him personally, and this poem is no exception. This keen observer takes careful note of the ancient customs of lighting candles and tapers at each grave so that the very air trembles with softly voiced prayers and flickering flames. Chestnuts are trodden underfoot, a reminder, perhaps, of the season for roasting them. The poem closes with a really surprising reminder that Guillaume

Apollinaire was a veritable storehouse of trivia, the observation that the Virgin Mary conceivably was not as dark-skinned as some icons, e.g. the Black Virgin of Czestochowa, depict her.

It is amusing to note that Apollinaire permitted himself to play a joke on his very good friend of his childhood years, M.

Toussaint-Luca, by dedicating this poem about All Souls Day to a person whose name contains the "All Saints" prefix.

"DANS LE JARDIN D'ANNA" (0.P.,347-1901)

A poem, reminiscent of a Fragonard or Francois Boucher pastoral- scene, but overlaid with a touch of thinly veiled eroticism. Contemporary with "Rhenane d'Automne" it reflects a period when the poet appeared to be making headway in his

courtship of Annie Playden. The extremely courteous tone of this

poem was to give way to a much more violent approach when

Apollinaire began to realise in the New Year that he was being

rebuffed. The prophecy contained in "Les Colchiques" concerning

his love being poisoned came to pass.8 87

Apollinaire hints at the more cruel side of his nature when he writes of breaking his cane across the back of a peasant or lasciviously kissing a redheaded servant girl, while paying serious court to the Anna of the poem. Actions that appear to reflect the dual nature of the German suitor in the poem.

"AUTOMNE MALADE" (0.P.,146-1901)

The autumnal theme is a reflection of the poet's love for a season that he identified himself with. M. Decaudin and L.C.

Breunig have attached importance to the fact that a manuscript was written on paper filched from a hotel in Munich where he stayed in March 1902, however this could well have been an attempt at a revision of a pre-existing poem. It is probable that

Apollinaire set down his feelings in a rough draft while in

Honnef and struggled later to introduce a more personal note in a heavily corrected version on the sheet of hotel notepaper that he

"borrowed" much later.

The poem's generally mournful tone and the borrowing of the final lines from "Un soir d'ete" are further indications of the date of the final draft and of the poet's state of mind during the summer of 1902 when he realised that his love for Annie was doomed.

Despite his tendency towards mystification the poet makes no secret of his infatuation in the following straightforward lines:

Automne malade et adore

Pauvre automne 88

meurs en blancheur et en richesse

Et que j'aime 6 saison que j'aime tes rumeurs.

"LA BLANCHE NEIGE" (0.P.,82-1901)

This was written while Apollinaire was staying at Neu Gliick, the Milhau villa near Bennerscheid, some 10 miles inland from the

Rhine. Things were moving satisfactorily in his relation-ship with Annie at the time.

The poem is rich in metaphor, God is presented in two forms, the angel-officer in a sky-blue uniform who will be rewarded with a golden sunny medal when Summer occurs and the angel-cook busily plucking the Christmas goose whose feathers slowly fall to the ground just like snow flakes, a reminder of the old saying in the midi of France "Le Bon Dieu plume ses oies". The shadow of death

casts a pall with the repetition in the form of an Apollinarian pun, with the word "tombe" doing double duty in its sense of

falling and tomb. For Apollinaire death signified the end of an

experience of love. He wishes he had his lady-love in his arms

just like the cook who is clutching the goose in his arms for the painful process of plucking. The cruel side of the poet's nature,

always just below the surface, is allowed to re-appear.

Three commentators have dealt with this charming little

poem, Mechtild Cranston has likened it to a fairy story, one

would like to think that Apollinaire might have made it up for

the benefit of Gabrielle de Milhau, one knows so little about his

role as the little girl's tutor. M. Decaudin traces a 89 relationship to the poet's visit to London in December 1903 but this does not seem to fit as well the one put forward above.

Mario Richter's detailed analysis unfortunately does not clarify the issue of the date of composition.9 On the whole, the grim realities of the poet's situation in Paris upon his return from the Rhineland would seem to preclude any inspiration as child• like as this poem indicates.

"LA MAISON DES MORTS" (0.P.,66-1902)

Apollinaire considered that this poem about a columbarium in

Munich, a piece somewhat longer than usual, as being worth including in the main section of Alcools; he deliberately inserted it midway between his version of spiritual death as exemplified by "Zone" and his poetic ascension in the. final poem

"Vendemiaire".10 The poem vividly reflects his obsession with death and resurrection, a trait that was to show up in one of his very last works, the play "Couleur du temps".

The poet's exceptional gifts as a reporter and observer of the scene when he visited the mortuary in the cemetery in Munich in April 1902 in the company of Annie Playden, are given full play in this poem which features meticulous descriptions of persons, customs and objects despite the fact that he sets the scene with a surprising economy of words in just two verses. The bourgeois nature of both the dead and their live mourner companions is delightfully underlined.

Another typically Apollinarian characteristic, this time his treatment of shadows,appears when the resurrected corpses notice 90 their shadows and see in them their past lives. Similarly the lover-poet finds refuge from his fatal love in the purity of the glaciers of memory and the past, he is fortified and no longer is dependent on any one.

Mme Durry has summed up the poet's feelings with exceptional perspicacity:11

Apollinaire sourit du peu que nous sommes et que

seraient les morts s'ils revenaient a la vie, mais

surtout il eprouve et fait eprouver toute la melancolie

que les sentiments.les plus profonds soient guettes par

la separation eternelle, de sorte que 1'amour entre les

• etres est condamne, 1'amour entre lui et Annie, comme

Si elle et lui n'etaient deja plus. Toute trace

d'ironie ou de sarcasme a disparu dans

1'Elevation finale, ...

"LA TZIGANE" (0.P.,99-1902)

Is Apollinaire's next poem in the chronological order that has been adopted. Outwardly a simple narration of the sadness surrounding the break-up of his love affair, it has yielded multiple examples of Apollinarian traits in its mere twelve

lines. A love of poetic puns appears thus:

Nous lui dimes adieu et puis

De ce puits sortit l'Esperance.

The oblique references to hope surging from a well or to the

blue bird becoming mangy are typical examples of Apollinaire's

gift of mystification so well described by Andre Billy in his 91 prefatory essay to an anthology of Apollinaire's poems.12

mystifier...c'est jouer avec la part de hasard, de

risque et de mystere que renferme toute entreprise

humaine et qui determine dans une certaine mesure son

orientation et son succes...une doctrine esthetique,

fondee sur le principe de nouveaute le tenait en etat

de disponibilite...

Although the well seems to indicate the depths of dejection

into which the doomed lovers were'thrown by the fortune-teller's

reading of their palms and the faint ray of hope that she used to hedge her prophecies, a trait shared by those of her calling;

Pol-P. Gossiaux in his essay13 points out that palmistry has a much more felicitous interpretation of the well image. Palmistry

leans heavily on astrology wherein the night has a generally evil

connotation and the well on the other hand has a beneficial

influence in that it protects one from evil manifestations on the

surface. He refers to Ioannis. Ganivetus' 1614 text, "Amicus medicorum cbntinens differentias":

Les degres "tenebreux", desquels l'on peut sans hesiter

rapprocher les "nuits" du poeme sont n£fastes: ils

rendent les choses sombres et laides. Mais le degre de

"puits" est considere comme neutre ou benefigue: il a

une heureuse influence sur les activites que l'on vient

d'entreprendre.

The blue bird image evoked by the sight of a moulting bird

perched on the fortune-teller's shoulder is most probably a

reference to one of the fairy tales from the pen of La comtesse 92

D'Aulnoy dating from the seventeenth century. The symbol of pure

love in the fairy tale has become an ugly bird instead of Le Roi charmant, the often frustrated lover of the princess Florine, turned into a wounded blue bird by the evil fairy Soussio.

Another aspect of Apollinaire's desire to cover his tracks, to take his reader into his confidence by indirect means only, has been brought to light very well by Mme Durry in her lengthy analysis of this extraordinarily complex poem.14 She shows that the everyday occurrence of a simple reading of a pair of lovers' hands reveals the gypsy as being the incarnation of otherworldly

strangeness, destiny and its interpretation. She is the eternal traveller on the journey which is the same that must be trodden by the loving couple, united together or separated, on their way to the unknown, to salvation or damnation, a situation that is all the more alarming because there is the presentiment of the unavoidable end, one of which the poet is only too well aware, as borne out by the squeezing of their hands.

The clumsy prancing bear, the image of carnal love, disowns the ideal love as exemplified by the blue bird and turns a deaf

ear to the latter's beggar-like entreaties. There is a hint in this poem that Annie, never never mentioned by name, was a bit of

a tease in her physical relationship with Guillaume, she most

probably egged him on but never allowed him to experience the

ultimate satisfaction which he so desired. After all, as so many

of his poems show, Apollinaire was always deadly serious in

matters of love. Had it not been for the rigorous detective work

of Breunig, Goffin and Wolf,15 the secret of the love affair 93

might have been buried with Annie Playden in America and with

Apollinaire in the Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris; and "La

Tzigane" written off as just another enigmatic poem dealing with

gypsy folk, whose life was a constant source of interest to the

poet. The poet, always secretive about Annie, took care not to

include this revelatory poem in the "Rhenanes" group in ATcools.

It probably originated in Munich on the way back to Honnef. Mme

Durry has summed up the poem in words which can be applied to

almost the entire poetic output of Apollinaire:16

Dans la transposition des images visuelles en images

affectives, dans la transformation du reel en allusion,

de 1'allusion au monde exterieur en allusion a la vie

cachee, je sens un des secrets non plus de 1'existence

mais de la poesie d'Apollinaire. Plus precisement, un

double secret de son art de conteur en poesie. L'un:

prendre pour sujet 1'anecdote, avec ses details

colores, nets, presque tangibles, et la volatiliser.

L'autre: raconter sans donner le mot du conte.

Having returned to Honnef in May 1902, Apollinaire was once

again under the influence of the folk-lore that seemed to emanate

so pervasively from the river Rhine, its banks its mists and its

crags. Five poems of a personal nature were composed during this

month, each reflecting the growing realisation that his love for

Annie was hopeless. The order of presentation of the first four

is based on the location of the village as one proceeds down the

Rhine, thereby duplicating as far as possible Apollinaire's

travel down the river in that month of May. 94

LA LORELEY" (0.P.,115-1902)

In this the first of Apollinaire's May 1902 poems, the simultaneous presence of the personages of fable and allegory, the myth that surrounds them, and the poet himself, is most pronounced.17

There is a continual undercurrent of personal allusion to

Annie Playden in this poem. It starts by turning Brentano's siren into a blonde maiden who, in response to the somewhat inquisitorial questions put to her by the bishop during her trial as a sorceress, tells him that, despite herself, her eyes are consuming flames and not shining jewels. As pointed out previously in the comments on "Les Colchiques", Annie's eyes were similarly prone to lead men to disaster, like Loreley she is a beautiful but fatal siren.

Apollinaire was so affected by the characteristics of fire, particularly the flickering nature of its flames, that he gives full prominence to them in the fifth and sixth verses, even the bishop is scorched by Loreley's burning gaze.

Commencing with the sixth stanza, Apollinaire identifies himself with the sorceress, during this transmutation one becomes aware that her heart is breaking but she wants to see her lover who, like Annie, is about to leave for a distant land, just once more. She believes she sees him approaching in a boat at the foot of the rock but she falls by accident down the cliff while attempting to get a better look at him. The parallels with the poet's own experience are striking. It is interesting that the 95 notion of suicide is absent and this bears out Apollinaire's own philosophy, he is almost continually aware of the presence of death but a predisposition to suicide was totally lacking in his psychological make-up.

"NUIT RHENANE" (0.P.,111-1902)

The second poem, takes up the story of the seven maidens of a village near Bacharach "Die sieben" Jungfrauen auf Oberwesel" as sung by a passing boatman. A supernatural environment is evoked from the first verse. Apollinaire was quick to perceive the special flickering nature of fire and the bubbles in wine, passive at first but capable of releasing- enormous amounts of energy.

In the second stanza the passive listener-bystander is transformed very abruptly into an imperious participant who has shed the enveloping cloak of mystery in favour of the attentions and earthly presence of blond frauleins.

However the mercurial nature of the poet changes once again in the third stanza, the supernatural takes over once more and the blond girls become green haired water sprites who sing of

Summer and the golden star-shine of the night is reflected in the

Rhine so that it becomes light in colour like its intoxicating wine.

The boatman's song is no longer a simple ballad but becomes an other-worldly sound compared by the poet to a death rattle, the sound of impending death, so that the reader is jolted into

awareness that something tragic is about to happen.18 The last stanza has a tremendous impact, Apollinaire makes us aware that the death pangs, caused by his breaking heart are as sudden as a burst of laughter. The simple narrative becomes an elegiac poem. None the less only an Apollinaire could reveal his inmost feelings with such a wistful comical allusion. He is like a tragic protagonist in an Italian "Commedia del arte".

"MAI" (0.P.,112-1902)

In this third poem it was the beautiful riverside near the village of Leutesdorf across the river from the Krayerhof estates and Andernach which inspired the poet, his powers, of observation and description reach their peak; not a detail is missed, the weeping willows, the orchards in bloom, the fallen cherry blossom petals, whose pink colour will will darken as they wither, the gypsy caravan, the ruined castles and ivy covered churches, the wild vines, the reeds and the osiers on the banks.

Richard Stamelman in his analysis of this poem has shown that the flowering orchards reflect the earlier months when the love for Annie was filled with life freshness and hope and the fallen petals the end of the romance, which has become fixed in the poet's memory, like the landscape astern of the river-boat.

Apollinaire's poetry is characterised by the importance he attaches to memory, it is one of the greatest sources of his inspiration.19

The motif of the backward looking glance which seems to congeal permanently the object viewed, is used in more than one poem by Apollinaire, it is a form of identification with 97

Orpheus.20

The personal touch is introduced very discreetly, almost diffidently, Apollinaire was always shy when describing his own relationships:

Vous etes si jolies mais la barque s'eloigne

Qui done a fait pleurer les saules riverains.

The poet's love for Annie is given shape by comparing the pink blossoms to her finger-nails and the darkened ones to her eyelids. The direct reference to Annie is expressed in the past tense. As the month of May dragged on, Apollinaire realised that any renewal of his loving relationship had become impossible in view of the young lady's rebuffs and Mme de Milhau's continuing discouragement. The poem is therefore the beginning of a very prolonged farewell, given form at first in "Les Cloches" and

"Mille regrets", and much later in the magnificent "La Chanson du

Mal-Aime" and "L'Emigrant de Landor Road".

"LES CLOCHES" (0.P.p.114-1902)

The fourth "May" poem has a rollicking, martial rhythm arising from Apollinaire,'s use of octosyllabic quatrains. The musicality reminds one of the old nursery rhyme, the Bells of St

Clements. In this case, the bell-tower of the village church of

Oberpleis near Bennerscheid dominates the local country-side.

However, tragedy lurks in almost every line. Apollinaire, ever the mystifier, hides behind a cloak by transmuting himself into a love-lorn maiden, ashamed of being caught in the act of love by the village gossips who will spread the juicy story on 98 the morrow. An entire verse is devoted to listing the villagers concerned. A foreboding of being abandoned is introduced in a typically sudden manner, giving rise to tears of grief but the notion of dying of grief and shame is voiced in a typically girlish, almost comic manner with the word "peut-etre"; yet the

sonorous sound of the last two syllables seems to hang in the air

long after they have been read, another example of the poet's musicality.

Upon return to Honnef Apollinaire must have had a period of

enforced leisure until his contract with Mme de Milhau ran out in

August. This would have been spent in putting the finishing

touches to the four "May" poems discussed so far and earlier ones

none of which were published until his return to Paris.

"LE PRINTEMPS"(O.P.,560-1902)

The fifth poem is partly a pastiche of previous poems. Two

references to the month of May establish its probable date of

composition in the year of 1902.

The first stanza refers to the Blue Bird featured in "La

Tzigane", the eighth and tenth stanzas hark back to "Mai", and

the twenty-third stanza is, almost word for word, a stanza in "Le

D6me de Cologne". The poem moreover provided material for three

poems of much later date, "Les Fiancailles", "L'Emigrant de

Landor Road" and "Le Brasier".

A noticeable division is present in this long poem; the

first eight quatrains deal with maidens whose pursuit of love

seems fruitless, they wander this way and that, words synonymous with losing one's way abound, "errer", "egare", "eperdues", "le vallon decevant", "ternir la source" are typical and seem to reflect the aimless situation that Apollinaire finds himself in; he identifies himself so readily with these lost lovers.

The next five stanzas describe the peaceful local scene in a typically Apollinarian way until with the fourteenth stanza a sudden shattering storm breaks upon the calm land and sea. Even the sun is affected as the sharks in the sea are ready to feast themselves on the corpses, abandoned on the shore, of lovers who have been deluded by false promises, among whom one must include a god incarnate as a poet who must have loved the fickle young women. Another example of Apollinaire's orphic vision.

With the seventeenth quatrain the daylight returns and the world becomes joyous again, despite the poet's sorrows, with an invocation to Our L,ady.

In many ways "Le Printemps" is a poem similar to a sonata in the form Allegretto, Andante - presto tempestoso, Scherzo. Its rapid changes reflect the mercurial temperament of its author who could never persist in a given state of mind, particularly a sad one, for any length of time.

Rapid mood changes are a well known symptom of what was formerly called Manic-Depressive psychosis and is now referred to as Bipolar disorder. There is documented evidence of transmission of this disease through the X chromosome i.e. on the female side.21

Poets it should be noted are described often as fitting the criteria for manic-depressive or bipolar disorders; Meyer and 100

Osborne list Byron, Coleridge, Shelley, Poe, and Gerard Manley

Hopkins among others. These psychologists theorize that bipolar disorders arise from the fact that frenetic and sporadic effort

is more effectively productive in poetry than in other areas and because the imagery inherent in poetry is more like the primitive thought found in severe emotional disruption.22. In the case of

Apollinaire the disorder may well have been sub-clinical and been the motive force behind some of his best poetry after 1902.

Bipolar disorders can be precipitated by what Bootzin and'

Acocella call "Exit Events". Apollinaire's break up with Annie

fits into their description. The same authors also indicate that

genetic factors must be taken into consideration. Apollinaire's mother had a terrible temper and a changeable disposition.23

Of the four poems which owe their direct provenance to the

remaining three months of Apollinaire's stay in the Rhineland;

two, "Rolandseck" and "Les Bacs du Rhin" have been dealt with

already in the narrative-descriptive section of this chapter.

"UN SOIR D'ETE" (0.P.,533-1902)

The train motif, that ended "Automne Malade", begins this

poem thereby reflecting the poet's continuing sadness on account

of the loss of his beloved; he again identifies himself with the

young girls who bemoan their bad luck. This time Apollinaire's

trade-mark wistfulness permits itself a touch of wry humour with

the entry of the godmother who is plagued by a headache and yet,

in the final line, he cannot resist venting his spleen at the

tricks that fortune has played on him. The four-syllable meter seems to duplicate the rumble of the train, it is probable that railway trains on local runs still consisted of four-wheeled cars since the contemporary Baedeker guide mentions a speed restriction of 25 miles per hour. The more modern eight wheeled bogie Corridor trains entailed paying a surcharge!24

"MILLE REGRETS" (0.P.,535-1902)

Rheinbreitbach, a few miles up the Rhine from Honnef, visited by the now lonely poet, is the setting for this poem written in early August. As he sits in an inn listening to a phonograph record of a four-part song warbled by castrati Italian singers who could never have known the real meaning of life, he watches a wedding party come across the Rhine from the village of

Oberwinter. The bride was blonde like their cigars in the smoke-

filled room and Apollinaire tells his drinking companion that his

former lady-love was blonde also, her eyes so soft and sweet. He wishes that the bride could become as drunk as a fiddler as she munches the sandwiches as if they were holy bread. He is reminded that the reign of love is about to begin but the closeness of the air in the room is too much for him and he feels that he has prattled long enough about love as he staggers home, mistaking the fir trees for dear old women.

Apollinaire shows us a glimpse of himself as the bon-vivant,

that so many of his friends have described, as he readies himself

to make his living in Paris, where he would be relatively free of

amatory entanglements' for the next five years. Apollinaire never 102 returned to the Rhineland, the memories evoked by a return visit would have been too much for him. 103

NOTES: CHAPTER 5

1 Karl Baedeker, The Rhine from Rotterdam to Constance

Travellers Handbook 14th ed. (Leipzig: Karl Baedeker Publ. 1900)

40.

2 "Colchicum," Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1944 ed.

3 Christopher Grey-Wilson and Brian Mathews. "Colchicum," in

Bulbs, (Toronto: William Collins Sons & Co. 1981) 56-57.

4 Georges Legros, "'Sens' et 'source' A propos des vers 10-11 des 'Colchiques' . " earners d' analyse textuelle 16 (1974): 109-

123.

5 Francoise Dininman, "Toujours a propos des 'Colchiques'" in

Etudes autour d' 'Alnonls' .. Anne Srabian de Fabry and Marie-

France Hilgar eds. (Birmingham, Alabama: Summa Publications

Inc., 1985) 25-40.

Anne Clancier, "Ebauche d'une etude psycho-critique de l'oeuvre de Guillaume Apollinaire." Revue des lettres modernes 327-330 (1972): 21.

. 6 Anne Hyde Greet, trans. XA1cools' Guillaume Apollinaire

(Berkeley: Univ. of California P. 1965) 223 104

7 Marie-Jeanne Durry, Guillaume Apollinaire, Alcools, 2

(Paris: S.E.D.E.S.,1964) 146.

8 Richard Howard Stamelman, The Drama of Self -in Guillaume

Apollinaire7s "Alcools" (Chapel Hill: Univ. of North Carolina,

1976) 68.

9 Mechtild Cranston, "A la decouverte de 'La Blanche neige' de Guillaume Apollinaire." French Review 39 (1966): 693.

Michel Decaudin, "'La Blanche neige'," Revue des lettres modernes 104-107 (1964): 125-129.

Mario Richter, "'La Blanche Neige' d'Apollinaire." in

Etudes autour d''Alcools', Anne Srabian de Fabry and Marie-France

Hilgar eds. (Birmingham, Alabama: Summa Publications Inc., 1985)

41-50.

10 Scott Bates, Guillaume Apollinaire (New York: Twayne

Publishers Inc, 1967) 26.

11 Marie-Jeanne Durry, 3, 122-3.

12 Andre Billy, Guillaume Apollinaire, Pontes d'aujourd'hui

No.8 (Paris: Editions Pierre Seghers 1947) 18-19.

13 Pol-P.Gossiaux, "Clef de la 'Tzigane' de Guillaume

Apollinaire." Les Lettres Romanes. Louvain 33 (1979): 305.

14 Marie-Jeanne Durry, 3, 15-30.

15 L.C.Breunig, "Apollinaire et Annie Playden," Mercure de

France 1" avril 1952: 638-652.

Robert Goffin, Entrer en poesie, (Bruxelles: A l'enseigne

du chat qui peche, 1948) 128-139.

Ernest Wolf, "Le sejour d'Apollinaire en Rhenanie,"

Mercure de France (15 juin 1938): 615-623. 105

16 Marie-Jeanne Durry, 3, 29-30.

17 Marie-Jeanne Durry, 2, 128.

18 Richard Howard Stamelman, The Drama of Self in Gui .1 laume

Apollinaire's "Alcools" (Chapel Hill: Univ. of North Carolina P.

1976) 56-61.

19 R.H. Stamelman, 69-78.

20 Philippe Renaud, Lecture d'Apol "1 inai re (Lausanne: L'Age d'Homme) 106.

21 Ralph A. O'Connell, "Depression: Bipolar or Unipolar?" in

Affective Disorders, No. 3 of Directions in Psychiatry

Monograph Series, Frederic Flach M.D. ed. (New York & London: W.W.

Norton & Co. 1988) 29-37.

22 Robert G. Meyer and Yvonne Hardaway Osborne, "The

Affective (or Mood) Disorders" in Case Studies in Abnormal

Behaviour (Boston: Allyn & Bacon Inc., 1988) 124.

23 Richard R.Bootzin and Joan Ross Acocella, "The Mood

Disorders" in Abnormal Psychology: Current perspectives (New York:

Random House, 1988) 238 & 245.

24 Karl Baedeker, The Rhine from Rotterdam to Constance -

Handbook for Travellers 14th ed. (Leipzig: Karl Baedeker Publ.

1900) xv-xvi. 106

CHAPTER 6

ENTRY INTO THE WORLD OF ARTS AND LETTERS, PART I, 1902-1903

Apollinaire's separation from Annie Playden must have weighed heavily on his mind from August 1902 until May 1904, when

she left Europe for good. No amount of hard work at the bank nor his new contacts with the literary fraternity could erase the memory of the pretty English girl. Many poems reflect the anguish he felt at this time and in some cases the incidence of the bi• polar disorder referred to in the analysis of "Le Printemps"

earlier in this paper.

"LA CLEF" (O.P.,557-1902)

This is a poem in the Maeterlinckian vein, it is of interest

chiefly because it borrows from "Rhenane d'Automne" and in turn

was dipped into for "L'Adieu and "La Dame". In this poem

Apollinaire has tried the device of role reversal with the

wandering maiden - the poet's alter ego - searching for her lover

whose eyes are forever closed; a reference to Annie's eyes, of

course, formerly shining jewel-like and seductive like those of 107

Loreley.

Apollinaire was slow to shake off the symbolist influence that affected his earlier poetry; this would appear to justify inclusion of "La Clef" among the poems created after his return to Paris, i.e. to date it in late 1902.

"LA DAME" (0.P.,127-1903)

This is above all an attempt to shake off the very lugubrious mood of the first version of this poem titled "Le

Retour" which ended thus:

Et je suis veuve, aux pieds meurtris.

The poem makes sense if one considers the dead body being carried away as his lost love, the role reversal of "veuve", and the footsore search for a living. The mood changes entirely with the wry introduction of the little mouse, the down-trodden symbol of the unlucky young man.

"LA CHANSON DU MAL-AIME (0.P.,46-1903)

The greatest of Apollinaire's poems has been the subject of much commentary. Mme Claude Morhange-Begue and Maurice Piron1 have each devoted an entire book to this work and numerous essays have been written. In particular the section of the poem titled

"Les Sept Epees" has generated no less than ten essays in their author's attempts to strip the veil of mystification with which

Apollinaire has shrouded it.

In this analysis it is proposed to begin with the, chronology

of Apollinaire's repeated attempts to render the poem into the 108

final version as we know it. This will be followed by a detailed

analysis section by section. Thirdly an attempt will be made to

review the psychological aspects of the work and finally a

summary of the conclusions reached as the result of the analysis will be presented.

It is probable that a rough outline may have taken shape

late in 1903 just after Apollinaire's first visit to London in

November 1903, this explains the epigraph:

Et je chantais cette romance en 1903.

Apollinaire's use of the imperfect and the research done by

Michel Decaudin2 confirms the fact that composition of the poem was spread over several years. It is unlikely that the poem

rested in the drawer of Le Mercure de France for more than two years before it was published. Apollinaire's pro-pensity to "cut

and paste" in the present-day sense of the phrase is very much in

evidence in this poem.

The poem's fifty-nine stanzas are divided by three

interludes which are distinguished by different •typography from the four sections which form part of the poem proper. The

arrangment is as follows and is based on the analysis of Mme

Morhange-Begue.3

(a) First section consisting of fourteen stanzas thematically

divided into stanzas:

1-7. Narration of an event that occurred in the past.

8-11. Reflections and commentaries thereon

12. Rejection of the poet's lost love

13. A refrain, to be repeated later in the poem. 109

14. An evocation of past happiness.

(b) First interlude amplifying the theme of stanza 14 and

consisting of stanzas 15 to 17.

(c) Second section of six stanzas divided into verses:

18 and 20. Concerning the death of love.

19. A second refrain explaining the poet's vocation.

21-23. Elaboration of the theme of fidelity in love.

(d) Second interlude, a diatribe against infidelity,

comprising stanzas 24-26.

(e) Third section of fifteen stanzas thematically divided

into two subsections:

27-32 Regretful remembrance preceded by a repetition

of the first refrain (stanza 13)

33-41 Dealing with the theme of madness and death.

(f) Third interlude, stanzas 42-48, devoted to the seven swords

symbolising painful memory and death, each of which

rates a separate stanza.

(g) Fourth section of eleven stanzas, Nos.49-59, subdivided

thus:

49. Repetition of stanza 13.

50-54 Once again reverting to the themes of death and

madness, and introducing the concept of destiny.

55-58. A sudden change to an upbeat, almost manic mood

which leads into the realisation of his destiny as a

poet in the final stanza.

59. A repeat of the second refrain (stanza 19), this

time with a telling effect. 110

The seven sections dealt with so far can be structured into

four principal groups which underline the alternating changes in mood to which Apollinaire was subject and to which attention has already been drawn in the remarks on "Le Printemps".

The first group is composed of the following themes:

(a) Remembrance, stanzas 1-7.

(b) Elaboration of the subject of remembrance, stanzas 8-11.

(c) Rejection of the love so fondly remembered, stanza 12.

(d) The first refrain, stanza 13.

The second group contains:

(e) Remembrance, verse 14.

(f) The first interlude dwelling on the remembrance.

(g) The death of love, stanzas 18 and 20.

(h) The lack of poetry's regenerative power, stanza 19.

(i) The theme of fidelity stanzas 21-25 and the first three

lines of stanza 26.

(j) The second rejection of love, last two lines of stanza

26.

The third group deals with:

(k) Remembrance, this time unpleasant.

(1) The consequences of such remembrance namely rapid alter-

nance between fond love, a manic high, stanzas 30 and 32,

and a state of depression leading to mental collapse,

stanza 31.

(m) Development of the theme of madness leading to death as

a result thereof, stanzas 33-48. These stanzas include .

the Seven Swords interlude which ties in death and remembrance.

(n) A final rejection of past love, stanza 48.

(o) The first refrain repeated, stanza 49.

The final group departs from the the themes of memory and rejection to include:

(p) Thematic material on destiny and death, stanzas 50-54.

(q) The theme of lyrical creativity in the sunny atmosphere

of Paris, stanzas 55-58.

(r) The resurgence of the poet as a lyrical creator with the

final repetition of the second refrain., stanza 59.

An examination of the first three groups provides evidence of considerable similarity,- In each case there is an initial statement of remembrance, which leads into a developmental passage, which is followed by a statement of rejection and one of the two refrains acts as a kind of "coda", to what in effect is akin to a movement in a symphony. The similarity is really striking. There are changes of key within each "movement" but the overall mood of the first three can be described as lamentoso'.

Within the fourth group the mood changes quite abruptly into what would be musically rendered as allegretto. The poet has been able to exorcise the devil that had followed him like a shadow.

This discussion of the structural aspects of the poem requires recognition of the interesting analysis put forward by

L. Breunig in his short essay "Le Roman du Mal-aime",4 wherein he ' describes Apollinaire as:

...artiste conscient et maitre-macon accompli, and draws attention to the nested loop-like characteristics of 112 the poem; five verses at the beginning describe a gloomy autumnal

London scene, five verses at the end feature a cheerful summery

Parisian ambiance. Next within, four verses deal with happy kings and faithful wives which are in turn counterbalanced by the four verse description of the ill fortune of the Bavarian kings who were afflicted with insanity. Further examples of the swinging of the emotional pendulum may be traced in the bright "Aubade" interlude and the sad seven stanzas of the "Sept Epees". The palace of the wise Ulysses is contrasted with the castle, devoid of a chatelaine, occupied by a lunatic king.

In the detailed analysis of the components of the poem which follows, the frequent oscillations of Apollinaire's temperament, mentioned in the foregoing remarks, will be further examined.

In the epigraph the poet reveals that, in 1903, he was unaware that his love could be reborn from the ashes of the fire that consumed him during his hopeless love for Annie Playden.

Apollinaire in his mystifying way hints that his love is being recreated in the shape of Marie Laurencin and thereby provides an indication that the poem in the form in which we know it must have been created sometime after the original version was published in the Mercure de France of May 1st 1909 but well before the 1913 publication in Alcools. Guillaume's graceful acknowledgement of Paul Leautaud's assistance in getting the first version published would have been pointless if he had delayed four years before dedicating the poem.

By 1913 his love affair with Marie was over and "La Chanson du Mal-Aime" was one of several ready made poems that could be 113

included without further changes in the Alcools collection.

The introduction of the Phoenix as the personification of his love is typical of the repeated references to other historical personages through out the poem. Anne Greet has

rightly indicated that the poet's states of mind are repeatedly

externalised and exorcised through personification in this manner.5

In the first three of the seven stanzas, being the

remembrance of things past, the poet reminds himself of his

wanderings in the London slums looking for some tawdry way of

getting his own back on the girl who had rejected him; he

acknowledges his shameful action and the fact that the street•

wise lout personifies his .motivation. He protests that he really

loved Annie and calls for the wave upon wave of red brick houses

to smother him in the same way as Pharaoh's Egyptian host was

drowned as they marched between the walls of the Red Sea, if his

protestations that Annie was his only love are untrue.

In the fourth and fifth stanzas Apollinaire seeks to

personify the rottenness of the false love that he had

experienced, by creating the ugly image of a dreadful drunken

harlot who had been operated on for tubercular neck glands, a

disease otherwise known as Scrofula, formerly called the King's

evil, from the belief in the Middle Ages, that it could only be

cured by the touch of the Royal hand.

Narrative is the keynote of the next two stanzas,

Apollinaire draws attention to two of the fortunate personages of

history, Ulysses and Dushmanta who were blessed with faithful 114 spouses.

Apollinaire then tells us that he thought of these happy men when false love generally and Annie in particular combined to make him feel so wretched. Even they, lucky souls, would have given up everything for Annie's kisses.

His personal hell is paved with regrets and sad remembrance.

He drifts aimlessly on a leaden brackish sea from bright dawn to sad twilight. The poet prays for the heavens to open up and swallow him in a•cradle of forgetfulness and for the Easter Sun to warm his hard-frozen heart. The notion of a descent into and a perilous climb back from Hell is part of the. Orphic mold that

Apollinaire recognizes surrounds his poetic persona. This concept will be more fully discussed when the "Sept Epees" interlude is dealt with.

The pendulum swings in the twelfth stanza as Guillaume brings himself to renounce the love that he now realises he lost as long ago as the summer of 1902. This stanza provides a clue that it was inspired by Annie's departure for the United States an event that took place in June 1904.

The refrain invoking the Milky Way, a metaphor for a woman as an object of affection, whiteness is a favourite epithet of

Apollinaire's ascribable to women, seems particularly well placed at this point since the poet indicates that the dead souls of frustrated lovers have the option of seeking other targets for the receipt of their capacity for loving. It is reasonable to suppose that Apollinaire, once again had Marie Laurencin in mind when he pants after nebulae other than our own Milky Way. Picasso 115 introduced Guillaume to Marie in 1907.

The last stanza of this section provides further evidence of

Apollinaire's bipolar mind-state as he swings back to the pleasant recollection of that April day in 1902:

J'ai chante ma joie bien-aimee

Chante 1'amour a voix virile

Au moment d'amour de l'annee.

This spring song provides a natural bridge to the first interlude which maintains the upbeat mood; it is interesting to note that the poet abandoned the reflective last line of his early draft, which read:6

Depuis ce jour j'ai tant pense.

In favour of the more poetic one with which we are familiar.

The "Aubade" interlude is, also linked to stanzas 18 and 20 since the mere mention of Mars and Venus in stanza 16 is enough to remind us that all the gods of mythology and religion linked to love have passed away; the pendulum swings once again in a shortening arc and recreates the mood of despair. The swing is not only regulated by time but also by space, since there is an abrupt move from the Rhineland to Paris.

Stanza 19 explains that the poet's vocation transcends the grief brought on by the actions of mere mortals, it is he who should entertain even those who would destroy him.

Out of the depths of despair the Poet is uplifted by his love which he asserts is as faithful as ever just as the Cossacks were to their principles in resisting the overtures of the heathen Sultan of Turkey. The theme of fidelity runs so strongly 116

in Apollinaire's mind that he has to assert it in the strongest terms even if he breaches the bounds of good taste in doing so.

The famous painting, showing the Cossacks telling the scribe what should be written to the Sultan of Turkey in reply to his

initiatives, and created by the Russian painter Repin was copied by many other artists and even appeared in miniature form as an

ornament to silverware so it is not surprising that. Apollinaire

knew about it, it is also possible that he may have heard the

story from his mother since there is no evidence that Guillaume

had any Russian friends at this time. Apollinaire's reaction to

this powerful work was to scribble a separate draft, which he

unearthed later, in order to include it in "La Chanson" as a

means of illustrating the virtues of fidelity; thus providing an

ideal example of the poet's skill at integrating disparate

elements into a tightly organised work as a whole.

The strong thread of faithfulness which bound stanzas 21 to

23 became unwound by the end of the "Cossack" interlude as once

again Apollinaire's mood turned to one of revulsion, introduced

by the "bridge" refrain as the poet thinks of his new found love

Marie and sings.

Voie lactee 6 soeur lumineuse

...des corps blancs d'amoureuses

Nageurs morts suivrons d'ahan

Ton cours vers d'autres nebuleuses.

However the spiteful mood with its references to a harlot's

eyes and almost sadistic kisses gives way after just three

stanzas to another bipolar swing as Apollinaire wishfully thinks 117 that Annie might return to him and make him happy, he now calls her his lovely haven of rest, his dove and, his favourite expression, his rose.

This mood of hope and its impossiblity of fulfilment now fills Apollinaire with morbid thoughts as he compares himself to the Burghers of Calais awaiting certain death at the hands of the

English. Apollinaire personifies his shadow who measures the length of his grave but once again a volte-face occurs when he realises that, the shadow is dependent on the Sun for its definition, the rapidity of the mood swings accelerates, barely filling two stanzas each as the sunny stanzas 38 and 39 are succeeded by the gloom of the final two stanzas of this section which' introduce the puzzling interlude of the Seven Swords of melancholy and is only alleviated by the ridiculous comparison of the fulness of his heart to the enormous callipygean attributes of a woman of Damascus, evidence once again of the poet's ability to evoke a smile even in the most dire circumstances.

"Les Sept Epees" has puzzled learned exegesists since Lawler first tried to explain the seven stanzas in 1954 by ascribing to them a pervasive sexuality,7 Follet tried to down-play this aspect some twelve years later8 and finally Marie-Louise

Lentengre in her thorough-going analysis has succeeded in presenting the accumulated wisdom of nearly thirty years.9

When did Apollinaire write this interlude, what was he trying to achieve and what are the temporal-spatial parameters of this enormously complex poem? These questions should be addressed before each verse is dealt with. 118

There is a definite leitmotiv of remembrance and

recollection in this group of seven quintils, which encourages

one to believe that Apollinaire waited until at least 1905 before he started to write this portion of the "Chanson du Mal-Aime".

It has rightly been called the keystone of the entire poem

despite the evidence that it was inserted after the later passages were written. This interlude represents an attempt to

exorcise the memory of the love Guillaume had for the pretty

English girl born into a devout but xenophobe Anglican family.

Mme Morhange-Begue has put forward thematically the following

seven stages of the exorcism exercise, after considering earlier

theories of Follet, Louis,Lawler and Gossiaux.10

Stanza 42. The death of his love is foreshadowed, "destin

sanglant", "Vulcain mourut"; purity, "neige", "argent"; is

contrasted with the capacity to cheat, "Vulcain","gibeline".

Stanza 43 Death is described explicitly, "Elle a tue" and

implicitly, "Carabosse"; Again the cheating theme is introduced

by showing up the sword as beautiful but murderous.

Stanza 44 An indirect reference to the messenger god being

emasculated and degraded by a cheating female.

Stanza 45 The poet- is subjected to the songs of the

beautiful sirens as a final test of his resolve, the sword serves

as a reminder of its capacity to kill.

Stanza 4 6 A further reminder of death both of love and of

the person.

Stanza 47 A final reminder that death and disappointment are

often cloaked by outward glory and success. All this must be put 119 behind one as a new day dawns and the poet begins once again his onward march through life.

Stanza 48 His former love is now quite dead and the poet has been cleansed of the bedevilled love, that had possessed him, to the extent that he is now able to state unequivocally that he never knew the particular manifestation of love that was called

Annie.

Fernand Desonay's doctoral student, Maria-Luiza Romanos,11 has advanced quite independently, a theory that the pale light of the first quintil has changed in the second into a bright and colourful manifestation of joy as evidenced by the colours of the rainbow. This gives place in the third to a mood of docile sub• mission and confidence. The theme of the fourth is voluptuous and sensual pleasure of which all that remains in the fifth stanza is a sweet memory; love is personified in the sad images of the cypress trees and the tomb. Pleasant dreams of past loves are inevitably shattered at dawn according to the sixth stanza and the seventh repeats the theme put forward by Mme Morhange-Begue.

These widely differing renderings have this much in common, the poet enters a state of love which is at the same time a descent into a hell of falsehood, both states are tempered by the cool winds of remembrance, which propel the poet to a state of calm wherein he can consider the whole experience objectively and set forth on a fresh adventure, "vers d'autres nebuleuses".

Philippe Renaud in writing about another poem, "Lul de

Faltenin", noted that Apollinaire often identified himself with the heroes of mythology, and that the descent into the very 120

lowest levels of his personality was analogous to the descent over time to the most ancient figures of mythology.12

Marie-Louise Lentengre even more precisely points out the

similarity between the dream-like sequence of the Seven Swords and even the whole "Chanson", sung by one who knew how to sing

lays for the queens and songs for the sirens, and the Orpheus myth:13

Et c'est 1'image qui, a l'instar du poete archetypal

Orphee, accomplit sa descente aux enfers, sa plongee

vers la mort, d'ou il revient vainqueur parce gu' i 1

est poete. pour affronter sa propre immortalite.

.Orphee ayant, comme on le sait, enchante les sirenes

pour delivrer les Argonautes de leur emprise.

Additional comments on these seven quintils arise from Mme

Lentengre's article, the penetrating review of it by Jean

Burgos14, and from one's own reading.

Stanza 42. The death of Vulcan is an allegoric

representation of the defeat of fire and virility by the female

principles of water and creativity.

Stanza 43. The moment of orgasm is the very moment when the

male is "killed".

Stanza 44. The "devenu nain" image which has led to many

theories is surely complementary to the idea expressed in stanza

42. Apollinaire is offering his now flaccid emblem of virility to

the watery blue image of femininity. The 1909 version as well as

the manuscript version featured in the review Cr£ation mention 121

that the said emblem is offered on a napkin to the "Antipapesse";

this is surely a rude reference, made in a moment of anger, to

Annie, the daughter of the strict Anglican who had no use for

foreigners or Catholics. Apollinaire, always trying to cloak any

direct reference to Annie, decided that the antipapesse line had

to be erased in the 1913 final draft. The theme of castration is

overstressed by Lentengre in her analysis.

Stanza 45. Lentengre is correct in finding the danger

lurking behind the seductive sirens who are luring the oarsmen to

their doom, however the choice of references, "Le Poete

assassine" and "Nuit rhenane" which she used to illustrate:

L'image du malheur lie a la perversite feminine,

while relevant, should have been, broadened to include "La Lore-

ley".

Stanza 46. The funereal images of the distaff, the sword and

the cypress tree, linked as they are by having the same general

pointed shape are metamorphosed into the flame of the torch

symbolizing the act Of poetic creation,- however sadness and pain

remain in the background of this dream-like passage.

Stanzas 47 and 48 have been adequately covered by Mme

Morhange-Begue and but Mme Lentengre has admirably summed up the

whole sequence by a repeated reference to the Orphic myth in the

following words as noted by Jean Burgos.15

la renonciation a 1'amour, renversee en impossibility

d'etre aime n'a [...] pas trait a un comportement reel

mais a un comportement mythique, semblable a celui

d'Orphee perdant deux fois Eurydice, parce que le reel 122

ne doit etre qu'une ombre pour que le poete puisse le

chanter.

Two commentaries on "Les Sept epees" namely "Remarques sur

1'inspiration religieuse des 'Sept epees'" by Daniel Delbreil and

"'Les Sept epees' une alchimie du verbe" by Francoise Dininman, have purposely been ignored as being useless for the purpose of this analysis, the reader is referred to Antoine Fongaro's highly critical review of them.16

With the conclusion of this interlude on a relatively upbeat note the reader might expect the poem proper to continue in the same vein. This is not the case; Apollinaire reminds us first of his poetic function and once again, in verse 50, there begins the now familiar downward swing of the psychological pendulum.

Maurice Piron has provided the following "explication" of verses 51 to 54, presented here in summarised form.17

Our destiny is fixed and impenetrable, we have to dance to the music of the spheres played by the demons of chance. This pessimistic bridge-note leads into the personalizing of his misery, which the poet likens to madness, similar to that

experienced by the two mad kings of Bavaria particularly Ludwig

II, whom the Prince Regent remembers, in the month of June on

Saint John's Day, when the glow-worms of midsummer shine in the

starry night.

The poet is now at the nadir of the manic-depressive state

which has afflicted him throughout this long poem but the passage

describing the dead king gazing face upturned to the changing sky

is enough to encourage him to do likewise, he gazes upon the 123 glorious June sunshine bathing his beloved gay and noisy Paris, and comes abruptly to a realisation that despite his aching fingers he must take up his poetic lyre once again and sing as he offers his masterpiece to his bien-aimee.

Moi qui sais des lais pour les reines

Les complaintes de mes annees

Des hymnes d'esclave aux murenes

La romance du mal-aime

Et des chansons pour les sirenes.

The nightmare is over, the poet can face up to reality as a new bright day dawns. 124

NOTES: CHAPTER 6

1 Claude Morhange-Begue, La Chanson du Mal-Aime ri' Apol linaire essai d' analyse structurale et stylistique.

"Bibliotheque des lettres modernes", 18 (Paris: Lettres Modernes,

Minard, 1970).

Guillaume Apollinaire, La Chanson du Mal-Aime. ed.

Maurice Pir.on. (Paris: A.G. Nizet, 1987).

2 Guillaume Apollinaire, "Ebauches pour xLa Chanson du

Mal-Aime'," ed. Michel Decaudin. Creati on 13 (1978): 7-52.

Michel Decaudin, "Les Manuscrits de xLa Chanson du

Mal-Aime'," One vln-vA? 9 (1984): 3-22.

Michel Decaudin, T,e Dossier d'Alcools' (Geneve: Droz,

Paris: Minard, 1960).

3 Claude Morhange-Begue, 227-231.

4 Leroy C. Breunig, "Le Roman du Mal-Aim£f"- La Table Ronde

57 (1952): 117-123.

5 Anne Hyde Greet, trans. Alcools: Guillaume Apollinaire

(Berkeley: Univ. of California P., 1965) 215.

6 Guillaume Apollinaire, "Ebauches pour la 'Chanson du Mal-

Aime' , " 18. 125

7 James Lawler, "Les sept epees," T.e Flaneur des Deux Rives

3 (1954): 10-13.

8 Lionel Follet, "Images et themes de 1'amour malheureux dans

'Les Sept Epees'," Europe 451-452 (1966): 206-239.

9 Marie-Louise Lentengre, " 'Les Sept epees' ou la parenthese onirique." Ouaderni di filologia romanza...di Bologna 2 (1981):

113-175.

10 Claude Morhange-Begue, 160-190.

11 Fernand Desonay, "Nouvel essai d'interpretation des strophes

'Les Sept epees'". Margi nales. juin 1969: 79-82.

12 Philippe Renaud, Lecture d'Apol1inaire (Lausanne: L'Age d'Homme, 1969) 200.

13 Marie-Louise Lentengre, 168.

14 Jean Burgos, Rev. of 'Tes Sept £p£es' ou la parenthAse oni rique. ROTUP des Lettres Mnriernes 682-687 (1983): 212-217.

15 Jean Burgos, 216.

16 Antoine Fongaro, "'Les sept epees' mysti-alchimi-fiees" in

"Pour l'exegese d'Alcools'," Studi Francesi 39 (1985): 335-337.

17 Guillaume Apollinaire, Ed. Maurice Piron,- 122-128. 126

CHAPTER 7

ENTRY INTO THE"WORLD OF ARTS AND LETTERS, Part II 1904-1907

"L'ADIEU" (0.P.,85-1904)

• May well have been part of a letter written to Annie in

England, possibly one that was not sent on to Annie in America, enclosing a sprig of heather for remembrance of the walks they took together, Guillaume reminds her of Autumn which he probably had described to Annie, when in London in November, as being a mournful season and adds that he hopes to see her in heaven:

Nous ne nous verrons plus sur terre

Et souviens-toi que je t'attends.

The eminently practical Apollinaire found just the right stanzas to express his feelings in the earlier "La Clef", thereby creating one of his most beautiful quintils.

"CLOTILDE", (0.P.p.73-1904) and "SIGNE", (0.P.p.125-1905)

Apollinaire's obsession with his shadow is evident in these poems which date from the early or symbolist part of the period 127

under review. It should be borne in mind that the word used by

Apollinaire, "Ombre" can mean ghost as well as shadow.

The first poem may possibly have been started before the poet's departure for the Rhineland since it is impossible to

identify it with Annie directly.

"Signe", on the other hand, is more closely linked to his

former love. His recollection of her dogs his every step like his

own shadow; while the dead leaves, like signs of a spring long

gone, duplicate his own experience of love.

"L'EMIGRANT DE LANDOR ROAD (0.P.,105-1905)

This major poem has not attracted the interest of

Apollinarians to the same extent as "La Chanson du Mal-Aime" and

"Palais". It is nevertheless important for the light it throws on

the poet's personality.

Philippe Renaud, in his comments on this work, has twice

insisted that it was composed after "La Chanson du Mal-Aime".1

This may be true, if the early draft of the latter masterwork

presented by Decaudin in his article in the review "Creation" is

considered, but, in the absence of further proof, "L'Emigrant de

Landor Road" antedates the version of "La Chanson" that was

published in Le Mercure de France. The probable time of

composition was early in the year of 1905 since it was published

in Vers et Prose in the December 1905-February 1906 issue.

Although the actual 1855 painting is located in Birmingham,

England, Ford. Madox Brown's famous work "The Last of England" was

reproduced time and again on postcards, prints and etchings. It 128

shows a group of emigrants sitting on the deck of a trans-

Atlantic vessel and gazing sadly at the shore as the ship sailed

away from England. Apollinaire must have been familiar with it

and realised its relevance to his own situation and that of

Annie. The following lines describe the scene:

Sur le pont du vaisseau il posa sa valise

Et s'assit

Les vents de 1'Ocean en soufflant leurs menaces

Laissaient dans ses cheveux de longs baisers mouilles

Des emigrants tendaient vers le port leurs mains lasses

Et d'autres en pleurant s'etaient agenouilles

(O.P.,106)

The poem, at first reading, would leave the impression that

it is the poet himself who is emigrating, in fact the poem has to

do with a situation where Apollinaire dreams of the abandonment

of his role as Annie's lover. It is the role, not the poet who is

leaving for America; the poem is an example of Apollinaire's

ability to personify the many facets of his poetic role. Philippe

Renaud has summed up the underlying motif of the poem thus:2

Ce serait faire dire au poeme ce qu'il ne dit pas que

d'imaginer que 1'emigrant s'en va rejoindre en Amerique la

femme qui 1'a abandonne. Le depart qu'il reve est bien

plutSt une rupture avec l'homme qu'il avait ete pendant

quelque temps.

Apollinaire dreams of far-off fields' of poetic activity

rather than the wide prairies of America; of a fresh start which

would free him from the hidebound constraints of the present and 129 provide a period of recovery from the pain and suffering brought

on by his hopeless love for Annie.

However the departure entails a difficult passage through the reefs of his destiny and the rocky memories of the past

continue to haunt him as he seeks freedom to live in a new era of peace.

Apollinaire's infinite capacity to create a flash of mockery

against a gloomy backdrop is illustrated here by the introduction

of headless tailor's dummies who personify his desire to shed the

worn out trappings of his servitude to Annie, in exchange for a

smart set of clothes in the latest style. Apollinaire stayed with

his Albanian friend Trank Spirobeg in Oakley Crescent close to

the Whitechapel district of London which was.occupied largely by

Jewish tailors and haberdashers, hence the somewhat droll

underpinnings for his inspiration.

The poem, like "La Chanson du Mal-Aime", alternates between

a humorous upbeat note and a sad downbeat one. The bipolar

disorder commented on in the discussion of Apollinaire's "Le

Printemps" surfaces in this work also. Hope and melancholy share

the stage.

Another feature of this poem is Apollinaire's use of the

"Cut and Paste" process of composition involving borrowings from

earlier works, often with excellent effect despite the difference

in mood and style between them. An example is the following

stanza lifted almost word for word from "Adieux" a 1901 poem

composed as a result of the break-up of his infatuation with

Linda Molina, (O.P., 332); the passage was also contained in an 130 early Stavelot poem which began with the line "Les villes sont pleines d'amour et de douleur" (O.P.,567):3

Intercalees dans l'an c'etaient les journees veuves

Les vendredis sanglants et lents d'enterrements

Des blancs et tout noirs vaincus des cieux qui pleuvent

Quand la femme du diable a battu son amant.

(O.P.106)

The stanza beginning with "Gonfle-toi vers la nuit 0 Mer!

Les yeux de squales" is an exact duplicate of a stanza in "Le

Printemps" (O.P.p.560) which is invoked by a storm at sea:4

Mais tout a coup 1'horizon vert s'est dechire

Montrant le violet des mers impetueuses

Le naufrage solaire aux princesses heureuses

De voir mourir un dieu qui dut les adorer.

The stanzas in "L'Emigrant which lead up to the "Gonfle-toi" stanza show a much more complex and mature inspiration. Distant toy boats dot the horizon and are described thus in a beautiful vision:

Un tout petit bouquet flottant a l'aventure

Couvrit 1'Ocean d'une immense floraison.

II aurait voulu ce bouquet comme la gloire

Jouer dans d'autres mers parmi tous les dauphins.

The only way the endless tapestry of memory woven by stubborn weaver girls who are compared to lice can be terminated is to drown them at sea like the Doges of old Venice who waded out to' sea in a symbolic gesture of marriage and conceivably to rid themselves of parasites.

II se maria come un doge.

Aux cris d'une sirene moderne sans epoux.

The "Gonfle-toi" stanza ends "L'Emigrant de Landor Road" on a serious note as the sharks lie in wait:

... les yeux

Jusqu'a l'aube ont guette de loin avidement

Des cadavres de jours ronges par les etoiles

Parmi le bruit des flots et les derniers serments.

Apollinaire, always conscious of being a foreigner in a land he loved, liked to identify himself with such people. The emigrant theme is particularly noticeable in "Zone", perhaps the most personal of his poems.

Mme Durry terminated her comments on "L'Emigrant" with the following observation which provides a suitable epilogue to the present analysis: 5

... le voici devenu chair et sang pour le voyageur vetu

de la neuve defroque qu'on lui a soldee, pour celui en

qui sont a la fois Annie partant a jamais vers l'Amerique

Apollinaire, - eternel passager du reel et de l'irreel,

assis la avec ses reves d'evasion, d'exotisme, son denue-

ment de deracine, - et tous les malheureux embarques fais

ant, du bateau, des signes d'adieu, pleurant et priant.

"UN SOIR" (0.P.,125-1905)

Is much more complex than the other four poems discussed so

far. It probably dates from 1905 and reveals a degree of 132 hesitancy as to what Annie really meant to him. Anne Hyde Greet has shown that Annie enters the poem as an angel or Madonna, then as a teasing wench with her tinsel clothes on, instead of being an honest naked lover, and finally as a conqueror in the image of

Christ.6

The poet begs his inamorata, who has the love-light in her eyes, to take a chance on love, even if it does not work out in the end, instead of being led astray by some other false and mocking admirer who, like Judas, deserves to hang.

The poem ends with a paean of triumph and rebirth as if in celebration of the victory of love.

The poem undoubtedly is the product of the happy or "manic" swing in his bipolar affliction.

Apollinaire was slow to shake off the pervasive influence of the English governess he loved so much but the next poem was the last directly connected with the loss he underwent.

"ANNIE" (O.P.,65-1905)

Was published as "Fanny" in Les Soirees de Paris in an obvious attempt to hide its connection with Annie Playden.

Apollinaire pictures her as a member of a Christian sect that was even more fundamental than her own "Low Church" Anglican one.

The geographical error, placing Mobile in Texas, instead of

Alabama, can only be ascribed to a rare gap in his encyclopedic knowledge. 133

"PALAIS" (0.P.,61-1905)

This eleven stanza poem belongs to the "Annie" cycle, although in a more tenuous way than the Rhineland poems and "La

Chanson du Mal-Aime". As in other poems of Apollinaire the poet creates a personified version of himself in the shape of King

Henry II and of Annie as the king's mistress Rosamund Clifford.

The major work of exegesis is Lionel Follet's "Du 'Palais' de Rosemonde a l'univers poetique" which has drawn on the work of

Bates, Burgos, Butor, Austin Caxton, Chevalier, Decaudin, Durry,

Meschonnic, Poupon, Renaud, and Rouveyre.7

"Palais", like so many of the later "Annie"' poems, indicates the presence of the bipolar psychosis brought on by the traumatic end to his love affair. The rapid oscillation which characterized

"La Chanson du Mal-Aime" is not present, it is replaced by a slower progression from a contemplative state to a jarring and nightmarish vision.

The poem is a dream sequence divisible into three parts; the first, stanzas 1-3, is a symbolist pilgrimage toward the depth of the dream; the second part, stanzas 4-6, is a descent from the dream of the beautiful palace to a caricature of the unworthy hosts, the king and his mistress, the alter egos of Apollinaire and Annie; the third and last, stanzas 7 - 11, is a slide from buffoonery to heartsick disgust as it describes the repulsive dinner meal.

The dreamy thoughts, the reveries are metamorphosed into the persona of Apollinaire himself as he approaches the beautiful palace of his dreams, succumbing to the erotic images of roses, 134 naked kings and distaff shaped cypresses synonymous with phalluses. His excitement increases as he drifts into a state of quasi-religious reminiscence with Eros himself piercing the small diamond shaped panes of the castle windows to create images of the stigmata of Christ's hands. This exercise in imagination had but little basis in history. There were very few glazed windows in the Palace of Woodstock, situated on the site of what is now

Blenheim Palace, judging from the engraving made from a drawing by Westall. The palace itself was destroyed about 1718.8

As for the stigmata, they can easily be explained by some irregularly shaped and distorting glass window panes reflecting the red rays of the setting sun. The same etching shows the palace situated on the bare knoll of a hill so it is unlikely that there was a garden or for that matter a maze nearby. The only maze that Eleanor of Aquitaine had to thread her way through would have been the rabbit warren of rooms the palace contained.

This first part is suffused with the imagery of death and wounds, emblematic of the passing of his once vibrant love. The religious note shows up in the bitter draught of Cypriot wine and the eating of the Paschal Lamb, both symbolic of Christ's Last

Supper.

L. Follet has correctly pointed out that this first part is in the nature of an incantation and that there is no sign of parody in it, only signs of the impending break-up:9

Le soleil miroir des roses s'est brise.

The abrupt beginning of the second part featuring the king- adulterer cavorting with his mistress Rosamund on his bony knees 135 is amusing in that Apollinaire refers to Annie reaching the May of her age and the inevitable end thereof on the 31st of the month. Although the beauty of Annie's eyes is a matter of record, there is no question, judging from her photograph, that they were round and rather prominent. The poet's disillusion shows up in the comparison of her eyes to those of a cruel, marauding, Hun.

Apollinaire cannot rid himself of his memory of her physical charms as he asks her who she is waiting for and gets her strange reply that she awaits her thoughts, which are on their way to the

East where her sisters are even more beautiful and physically endowed than herself; a process of thought transference, since it is the poet who has the vision of the callipygean attributes in question.

The poet is now invited to behead and thus kill-off his varied recollections as evening falls, and he proceeds to the feast where he is served up his memories in the ghastliest of forms and and a "danse macabre" is performed in his brain.

In the last two couplets the poet asks himself two almost unanswerable questions as he introduces the image of the

Pentecost. Should he regard Love as inspiration or as a manifes• tation of the Holy Spirit? Should the poet be a lover or an apostle?

"LA FUITE" (O.P., 655-1905) and its variant "L'ENFANT D'OR"

(O.P., 681-1905).

Mention should be made of these two sonnets if only because of the similarities to "L'Emigrant de Landor Road". The poet is 136 identified with the "once and former" king who watches the ship carrying his lover away to a certain shipwreck.

It is impossible to pin a date to them but their content would appear to preclude their belonging to the turn of the century.

"ROSEMONDE" (0.P.,107-1905)

Apollinaire is known to have taken a short holiday in

Holland in 1904, the same year that he met Andre Derain, the painter.

He had previously read the continental version of the story of Rosemonde wherein she was reputed to have hailed from Italy.

The three quintils which make up "Rosemonde" relate the story of an abortive pursuit of a girl in Amsterdam, a circumstance which

Apollinaire recalled when writing "Zone". Despite mourning the loss of Annie, Apollinaire was not above chasing women, particularly when his partner in this escapade was the notorious

Gery Pieret. The dedication to Derain gives an indication of the date.

"SALOME" (O.P.,86-1905)

Published at the end of the year; it was probably the last of the poems to be written before the unproductive year of 1906.

It is noteworthy because Apollinaire has tried to penetrate the character of Annie rather than subjecting himself to the rigorous self-analysis of so many of the "Annie" poems.

There is a devil-may-care quality in this work, a 137 lighthearted approach to a tragic situation, and yet the underlying cruelty is still there. The invitation to the king's jester to make John the Baptist's head into his fool's bauble is typical, especially when compared to Salome's decoration of the

Baptist's own staff. The final indignity comes as the dancer announces the loss of her garter. Apollinaire would appear to have succeeded at last in relegating Annie to past history rather than allowing himself to be tortured by his memory. The death of

John symbolises the end of his role as Annie's lover in this poem.

"CREPUSCULE" (0.P., 64-1905) and "SALTIMBANQUES" (0.P., 90-1905)

These two poems emanated from a single preliminary draft.

Publication was deferred until February 1909 with dedications to

Marie Laurencin and Louis Dumur respectively. Dumur was an executive editor with Le Mercure de France.

Multiple influences were at work during the the composition of these two works, which probably occurred in 1905, but Annie was not one of them. Frangoise Dininman enumerated several in her presentation on the origins of "Crepuscule" at the Stavelot

Colloquium of 1982 of which the following are important.10

1. Pictorial, certainly Picasso and just possibly Marie

Laurencin.

2. The masters of Symbolist poetry, definitely Verlaine,

and to a lesser extent, Mallarme, Baudelaire, Nerval and

Rimbaud.

3. The theatre, particularly "La Commedia dell'Arte" of 138

Italy. Apollinaire had started his research on the

subject in preparation for his book T.e Th£fitre itallen.

4. The secret rites, gnosticism, alchemy, free-masonry

and most importantly the Tarot.

The foregoing partial list serves to describe the poetic baggage which Apollinaire carried with him as he tried to seek salvation in the creative act of writing poetry. An act which would make him "Thrice Great", like the successful Harlequin of the poem, instead of being condemned to a life of wandering about like the poor tumblers and dancers described in "Saltimbanques".

Several paintings by Picasso in his "Blue" and early "Pink" period provided the initial inspiration. Apollinaire probably saw the first version of the circus family, the one that was subsequently painted over, to produce the one which shows the likenesses of Fernande Olivier, Picasso as the Harlequin and

Apollinaire as the fat jester. This first version and several others would have formed part of the exhibition of 33 works at the Galeries Serrurier•in Paris which Apollinaire reviewed in the

May 15 1905 issue of La Plume: the plain, and the fruit trees in

"Saltimbanques" are easily recognizable.

As regards "Crepuscule" the overriding influences were the exhibition as a whole and Apollinaire's interest in the occult.

The word pictures of the nude wife of the harlequin, the old man nursing the child and the larger than life harlequin himself were derived from the original Picasso paintings but the major

Tarot arcana reflect the nude bather, the unhooked star, and the

hanging man. 139

Mme Durry has drawn attention to the similarity of this pair of poems to the works of Verlaine. Apollinaire was never one to publicly acknowledge the influences of other poets on his own output but there is the wanness, the pallor and the sad simplicity so typical of the great nineteenth century poet.11

Although Picasso saw Apollinaire as a jester, the poet's vision of himself as Harlequin is much nearer the mark. R.

Stamelman has analysed this aspect of Apollinaire's personality very well. Harlequin, above all as a protege of Mercury, god of thieves and charlatans, has the power to change his form and roles. His entry on stage bedazzles the audience with his magical and creative tricks, particularly the ability to manipulate the star he unhooked from the night sky, making it do what ever he wanted, thereby duplicating the creative act of writing poetry in its many different forms. In his summing up Stamelman wrote:12

Like Harlequin, Apollinaire's self is the only actor in

a drama where it plays all the roles. It assumes

different guises, wears many costumes, speaks many

voices and has diverse faces

Apollinaire invoked Hermes Trismegistos because he knew that the god's Egyptian equivalent Thoth was the inventor of writing and scribe to the gods which is what he aspired to be.

"LUL DE FALTENIN" (0.P.,97-1907)

This is one of Apollinaire's most puzzling poems, and one which, judging from the manuscript version published by L.C.

Breunig, gave him far more trouble than the many poems wherein 140 the engine of inspiration was Annie. In this poem, written and published at the very end of 1907 the creative drive was a combination of the influence of the many prostitutes Apollinaire consorted with, before his attachment to Marie Laurencin, and the awareness that he should break new ground if he wished to make a lasting impression in the poetic field.13

In a sense "Lul de Faltenin" is an attempt to create a simultaneous image of a sailor, the Sun and the poet himself and is a precursor of the great poems in the simultaneist genre. The metamorphosis of the poet as a sailor and the Phoebus-Apollo sun image and the prostitute friends as the winged sirens wooing the sailor with rude gestures are the basic fabric of the poem. To these a spatial element is added, namely the Orpheus-like slippery slide into the watery grotto of the sirens. A climb therefrom into a sparkling new world wherein he can find his true self, with "La merveille" as his shield against the siren wiles is not capable of attainment as yet. The sailor's wish for the greening of his ships bare masts and spars and a safe return to his home port will not be fulfilled.

The poet's flight to the sun meets the same fate, death by drowning, as that of Icarus or of the Sun as it sinks daily into the sea, despite his knowledge of his capability to create a universe of poetry:

Car c'est moi seule (0) nuit qui t'etoile.

J.C. Chevalier described, in his detailed analysis of the

poem, this wish for transformation into an orphic ideal thus:14

... au debut le poete ne trouve un essai d'existence 141

que devant le cercle des spectateurs qui 1'accueillent:

larron, ermite ou Merlin, il's'enferme dans ce cercle

vif de perception qui devient un labyrinthe. Mais le

poete de l'epoque 1907 est celui qui se fait et qui

cree; moment parallele a cet hiver pendant lequel

Picasso construit ses Demoiselles d'Avignon. Pour

donner unite a ce personnage qui a retourne la

communication en sorte qu'elle n'est plus un

commerce, mais une lutte, Apollinaire se decouvre

un modele historique, si l'on ose le dire;

ecrivons du moins: un modele du passe. C'est Orphee.

Apollinaire was very well informed about Greco-Roman myths.

His knowledge about the multiple incarnations of Apollo as the

Sun God and as an Archer provided much material for this interesting work.

The poem is a despairing lament but despite all the evidence of acute depression, there is no indication of the bipolar, manic-depressive, state which appears to have worked its way out of his system.

Coupled with this depression, arising from a self-conceived lack of creative activity, is a recurrence of the disgust when he feels compelled to resort to his auto-erotic practices in the absence of a loyal woman friend. The two-fold attacks on his normally sunny disposition are voiced:

... et je l'avoue/Le meurtre de mon double orgueil.

There is a temptation to read into this poem more eroticism than is necessary, particularly on the part of some commentators such as Bates, Fongaro, Louis, and, to a lesser extent, Renaud.

The most that need be said is that Apollinaire in this poem examined himself as clinically as he knew how and was not afraid to lay bare his problems, although he gave his innate tendency toward mystification full play.15 143

NOTES: CHAPTER 7

1 Philippe Renaud, Lecture d'Apollinaire (Lausanne: L'Age d'Homme 1969) 63 & 65.

2 Philippe Renaud, 63.

3 Marie-Jeanne Durry, Guillaume Apollinaire, 3 (Paris:

S.E.D.E.S., 1964) 38.

4 Michel Decaudin, Le Dossier d' 'Alcools'. (Geneve: Droz,

1960) 171.

5 Marie-Jeanne Durry, 3, 39.

6 Anne Hyde Greet, trans. 'Alcools', Guillaume Apollinaire

(Berkeley: U. of California Press, 1965) 264.

7 Lionel Follet, "Du Palais de Rosemonde a l'univers poetique." in Lecture de Palais d'Apollinaire Archives Guillaume

Apol1i nai re N° 6 (Paris: Minard 1972) 15-102.

Stuart Bates, Guillaume Apollinaire, New York: Twayne

Publishers, 1967. 60-62.

Jean Burgos, "Sur la thematique d'Apollinaire, lapidaire, herbier, bestiaire." in Guillaume Apollinaire, 8, La Revue

rtft.q Iflttrps mndernes 217-222, (1969) : 145-146. 144

Michel Butor, "Monument de rien pour Apollinaire"

Repertoire TTT (Paris: Minuit, 1968) 284.

Austin Caxton, "Apollinaire et l'avalon des avales. Article

d'origine revelee" Les Lettres nouvellesf sept.- oct. 1969: 131-

145.

Jean-Claude Chevalier, "Apollinaire et le calembour."

Europe 451-452 (1966): 56-76.

Michel Decaudin, 109-112.

Marie-Jeanne Durry, 2, 27-48.

Henri Meschonnic, "Apollinaire illumine au milieu d'ombres". Europe 451-452 (1966): 141-169.

Marc Poupon, "Dans le Palais d'Anna" Lecture de Palais d'Apollinaire, Archives Guillaume Apollinaire n° 6

(Paris: Minard 1972) 7-14.

Marc Poupon, "'Le Larron' essai d'exegese". in Guillaume

Apollinaire, 6., La Revue des lettres modernes 166-169 (1967) :

35-51.

Philippe Renaud, 67-69.

Andre Rouveyre, Amour et poesie d'Apol1inaire (Paris: Le

Seuil, 1955) 183-191.

8 Patrick. Montague-Smith and Hugh Montgomery-Massingberd,

Royal Palaces Castles and Homes (London: Country Life Books, 1981)

149.

9 Follet, Lionel "Du 'Palais' de Rosemonde a l'univers poetique" in Lecture de 'Palais' d'Apollinaire,. Archives Guillaume

Apollinaire n° 6 (Paris: Minard, 1972) 33-34. 145

10 Francoise Dininman, "Naissance de 'Crepuscule' ou les tours de Mercure" in Que v1o-v£? 2nd series, 6 & 7 (1982): 1-30.

11 Marie-Jeanne Durry, 2, 60-61 & 67-68.

12 Richard Howard Stamelman, The drama of self in Guillaume

Apn 1 1 i nai re' ,q 'Airnnls' (Chapel Hill: U. of North Carolina, 1976)

103-118.

13 Leroy C. Breunig, "Le manuscrit de 'Lul de Faltenin,"

Ttevuft dps Sciences Humaines, 84 (1956): 401-412.

14 Jean-Claude Chevalier, 'Alcools' d'Apol1inaire. essai d'analyse des formes poetiques (Paris: Lettres Modernes, Minard,

1970) 169.

15 Scott Bates, "Sur 'Lul de Faltenin'," Le Flaneur des Deux

Rives 6 (1955): 7-9.

Antoine Fongaro, "Apollinaire, Gautier et les sirenes,"

RPV11p des Lettres Modernes 183-188 (1968): 64-81.

Rene Louis, "'Lul de Faltenin'." Le Flaneur des Deux

Rives, 2 (1954): 9-11 and "Encore 'Lul de Faltenin'." Le Flaneur des Deux Rives' 3 (1954): 7-9.

Philippe Renaud, 495-502. 146

CHAPTER 8

THE YEARS OF HAPPINESS AND STRESS, PART I, 1908-1909

In 1908 Apollinaire's conception of poetry at the time was in his own words:1

...triomphe de la faussete, de l'erreur, de 1'imagination.

...rien qui nous ressemble et tout a notre image.

Je ne cherche qu'un lyrisme neuf et humaniste a la fois.

"Onirocritique" and its poetic cousin "Le Brasier" are emblematic of this major change in Apollinaire's poetic credo, which was foreshadowed by "Lui de Faltenin". Henceforth, even the poetry that was composed during and after his love affair with

Marie Laurencin would be influenced by this new thinking, despite an inclination to revert to traditional forms when under the stimulus of a love that was doomed. The "Marie" poems, in a sense, were sandwiched between the outright experimentation of

"Onirocritique", "Le Brasier", and "Vendemiaire", with "Les

Fiancailles" introducing the Laurencin set, and the continuing experimentation after Alcools was published, exemplified by the poems in the Calligrammes collection. 147

In 1908 blank verse was still considered to be innovative, it was favoured by the Neo-Symbolists under the leadership of

Jean Royere, editor of La Phalange where Apollinaire served as poetry critic. Even though his own poetry was becoming more and more innovative, Apollinaire had a degree of affinity with

Royere's theories, but he was disinclined to give up what he valued in the huge storehouse of legend and myth that was the result of his extraordinary capacity to absorb his widespread reading.

"ONIROCRITIQUE" (O.P.,371-1908)

Apollinaire's prose poem translated by Stuart Bates as

"Dream Criticism" is an Apocalyptic view of the World after a cataclysm: one wonders whether the poet's uncanny gift for prophecy foresaw the possibility of nuclear annihilation.2

The poet's Merlin-like figure wanders about this dead world where men and women have different eternities and a pair of dissimilar animals were observed to be coupling. His vision was influenced by the writings of Remy de Gourmont in Epilogues concerning the relationship of the sexes. The poem is a farrago of monkey's throats belching flammes, of flocks of tanned sheep swallowed whole, of singing apple trees, of scarlet stigmatae on hands, of skull-shaped pearls, of other monkeys violating graves, of the enchanter multiplying himself a hundred fold, of humans in a wine-press whose juices gave birth to other men, of the crowns of aged kings whose favours were preferred by women on account of their experience in the arts of love. 148

This surreal picture cannot however be ascribed to the kind of automatic writing that the Surrealists of the 1920s were trying to develop. Apollinaire was prone to let his fancy roam and this poem is a deliberate committal to writing in the same way as his erotic Les Onze mille verges recorded his sexual fantasies. Fire and flames, the poet's preoccupation in 1908, do appear in the poem but play a minor role compared to these elements in "Le Brasier",. despite the case made for the importance of fire in Mechtild Cranston's analysis of this poem.3

"LE BRASIER" (0.P.,108-1908)

In "Le Brasier" Apollinaire identifies himself figuratively with Merlin and. thus assumes the attributes of the famous medieval magician, namely the supernatural powers of cosmic identification, ubiquity and simultaneity and the demonic ability to alter his forms and shapes. This assumption of the wizard's mantle also occurs in "Zone", "Cortege" and "Vendemiaire".4

The poem is composed of three parts, which will be referred to as "A", "B" and "C". Each part is divided into sections/stanzas which are individually numbered using arabic numerals for ease of identification. The stanzas in "A" are octosyllabic quintils, while "B" and "C" feature blank verse in sections of varying length.

The poem is virtually contemporaneous with "Les

Fiancailles", in fact early drafts were written on the same sheet of paper. As befits its name "Le Brasier" reflects Apollinaire's total preoccupation with fire which is characteristic of the 149 poems of 1908. He regarded fire not only as an agent of destruction but also as a purifier, the vital element of the entire stellar universe, as a manifestation of the Godhead and the whole company of angels. In fact Apollinaire could have been easily accepted into the Zoroastrian religion if that religion revoked its requirement for candidates to be born of parents who were members of that faith.

The first four lines of stanza Al reflect Apollinaire's abandonment of the images of cut hands and heads separated from their bodies which were a feature of the "Annie" cycle and other poems of earlier vintage. The fifth line describes his abject surrender to the power of the flame.

Peter Frohlicher in his lengthy and mainly structural analysis of the poem has advanced an interesting hypothesis that the heads of the dead represent knowledge fulfilled and the live hands are an indication of the ability to apply the competence acquired in the past to the present as well.5

In the next stanza, A2, a new element is introduced, the farewell to things past is over, there is a cosmic urging, an animal like virility, a resurgence of erotic anticipation only tempered by the rustling of leaves on tree branches, a phenomenon which Apollinaire was inclined to think invested the vegetable world with oracular powers. The presence of Marie Laurencin must have had much to do with this. The stanza is a fine example of

Apollinaire's experiments in simultaneity in combining the past, the present and the future in five short lines.

Stanza A3 is, in a sense, a recapitulation or reinforcement 150 of Al and A2. The rhetorical questions do not require an answer, they merely indicate that the fickle love and religion of yesteryear have disappeared and that the poet's soul will be recreated in the newly rekindled fiery furnace.

The lemon, tree image, a favourite of Apollinaire's, is central to stanza A4. Apollinaire even used it in a poem sent to

Louise de Coligny-Chatillon, his war-time love. It is symbolic of permanence and remembrance, a lasting recollection of the sunny boyhood on the Cote d'Azur. The beheaded symbols of the women he loved in the past and of the women whose bodies merely served as a relief to his libido, can be allowed to bleed like the setting suns while the twin hearts of Marie and Guillaume hang together on the lemon tree. One is reminded of the old Cornish folk song:

"I'll hang my harp (heart?) on the weeping willow tree

And may the world go well with thee"

Apollinaire next thinks of the river Seine being part and parcel of his beloved Paris. Assuming the role of Amphion who built the walls of the city of Thebes by charming the the stones with his lyre, he sees the power of poetry giving him the means to assume once again his God-given role as an architect of words.

The second part of the poem differs from the first in that the poet is now totally absorbed by the the flame in more senses than one, since not only does it surround him but it burns brightly within him. No longer is the poet committing outworn

images to it. The flame has liberated him from his past expe•

riences.

In Bl the poet compares himself to the the strong-willed 151 martyrs who suffered appalling tortures for their beliefs. One in particular, Saint James of Persia died in the fifth century A.D. after undergoing intercission, a progressive hacking away of his limbs starting with the extremities.6 Apollinaire seems to have been fascinated with the histories of the Saints, his knowledge of the subject went far beyond the teaching of the Marianist fathers which he acquired in his schooldays. The poet, never one to underplay his role in the poetic scheme of things goes even further by asserting, in a complex hyperbole, that the light shining on his countenance is so great that the Sun has to be shielded from it by the wings of birds.

Apollinaire starts the second stanza by a bantering invocation of Memory, and a reminder that much in this world is likely to degenerate like the accursed progeny of 'Castor and

Pollux. The serpentine flames remind him of the undulating necks of swans reputed to be immortal and yet... incapable of singing.

At line five there is a change of key. The alchemy has been at work and the Poet hails the renewal of his life and returns to the present impermanent life by invoking the transitory image of the mail steamers who glide by each other on their appointed routes until they meet their fate in the scrap yard. The watery leit-motiv, one of Apollinaire's favourites, that is a feature if this part ends with a punning reference to the cooling effect of water, he sees it as a means to reduce the over-heated state of his mind at the same time as he tempers the tools of his trade, his hands, as he plunges ^them into cold water after heating them in the furnace. . 152

The third stanza brings in, once more, the mail steamer image, driven as they are by the roaring flames in their boilers.

This of course was in the days before the introduction of motor- vessels or atomic propulsion. There is a re-iteration that the

Poet has undergone a process of renewal, and finally Apollinaire disassociates himself from those who are too scared to be purified in the flames of the fiery furnace.

The third part must have given Apollinaire much difficulty and the rough draft confirms this. There is an element of doubt that permeates the final stanzas. As the Poet descends from the starry vault of his ambition he sees the future flaming intan• gibly across the heavens like a comet. He wonders what it has in store for him and Marie and likens it to kind of divine masquerade in which he and his fellow-men will be, not only the actors on the stage, but also the audience, the latter being unable to influence the course of events. The theatre of life is built by the sacrifice on the funeral pyre in the empyrean in the same magical way as the snake Zamir (still more evidence of the erudition of Apollinaire) built the Temple in Jerusalem.

A Sphinx image introduces the concept of hidden wisdom as distinct from the purely erotic image of the Centaur featured in part "A". The flock of wise - and devious - men will follow their leaders all through life. Beasts devoid of humanity will give orders to men who have been tamed by them; a remarkable reversal of roles and an amazingly stunning prophecy of the Nazi regime in

Europe during the 1940s by one who undoubtedly had Merlin's magical gifts. 153

Finally the "doubt" theme returns as the Poet asks why it

should be necessary to be devoured by flames to rise above the

common herd.

"Le Brasier" is an example of Apollinaire at the peak of his powers. It contains the best of the poetic devices and some of

the most telling images to be found anywhere and provides proof

if sucn was needed of Apollinaire's sensitivity and erudition.

"CORTEGE" (O.P.,74-1908)

This poem, is one of the four important poems of the years

1908 and 1909, the others being, "Le Brasier", "Les Fiancailles"

and "Vendemiaire". Two more poems, only slightly less important,

were produced namely "1909" and "Onirocritique".

There is some doubt as to when the-poem was first conceived;

the original draft was written on the back of a piece of paper

dated 1906, this is understandable because Apollinaire never

threw away a blank page. However there is a strong Unanimist

flavour to lines 19 to 73 which justifies the date shown.

Apollinaire recited the poem in front of Jules Romains in 1909.8

This work written mainly in blank verse is composed of three •

parts, lines 1 - 18, 19 - 65, and 66 - 73. The first is largely

mystical and metaphysical in nature; the key is in the last two

words of the last line "l'unique lumiere". The second part is

divided into three main sections, the first of which, lines 19 -

23 illustrates facets of the -Apollinarian self using "je", "me",

"moi", "tu", "Guillaume", and "celui-la" all in the space of four

lines! The poet is searching for his proper identity and 154 knowledge of himself. In the second section lines 23 - 47 there is a procession of sensory impressions and perceptions and in the third, lines 48 — 65, a parade of dreams, hallucinations and creatures of the poet's imagination.

In the third and final part of the poem, lines 66 - 73, the poet is finally rewarded in his quest for self knowledge. He realises that he must look to the shining past as he turns away from the colourless world of the present.9

There are many disparate elements in this poem but they have been joined to make a comprehensive if not an immediately comprehensible whole. In this Apollinaire has followed the techniques of the Cubist school of painters whose work was often made up of collages.

It is now appropriate to deal with each part in greater detail. The first five lines have to do with a mythical bird that nests in the air, a myth that may have arisen because the humming bird can fly to very great heights, even 16000 feet above sea level, and because some birds can mate in the air. The important point is that from great heights, on a clear day, the earth below can shine quite brightly, one need only refer to the beautiful pictures of the Earth taken by the astronauts for confirmation.

Inverse flight can be explained as a flight towards brightness, hence a seeming flight towards the ground is visualised as an upward flight. It is a metaphysical world, one that is turned upside down, one that calls for a totally different outlook; Apollinaire made, this clear in a line in an early draft of the poem, which he had tentatively titled 155

"Brumaire" before settling on "Cortege" and suppressing it in the final version; as usual Apollinaire had an abiding fear of revealing too much, a trait that made his friends accuse him of being a mystifier:

Nouvel oiseau d'une nouvelle realite.

Richard Stamelman has called this different vision in-sight, one that•looks inward to the self, a neologism that Apollinaire would have approved of.10

The next stanza of this first part, lines 6 - 11, connects the poet's self to this newly created world. The self has a built in duality however, one bound to the earth the other planing in the sky above. The terrestrial persona struggles, chained, in the misty darkness, the other flies free in the brightness which allows him to see his inner self and his past in the form of the bright stars of the night.

The third stanza, a development of the first two, brings the very important image of an upward flying comet trailing a fiery tail "ce feu oblong" whose brightness increases as the earth is left behind, and causes the mythical bird to shield its eyes.

This celestial brightness is composed of two elements, one, the past, that becomes more luminous the further back one goes, the other, the future, that will come into being when the oblong fire becomes a sun. Like the sun, the poet's works of art will live on after his death. The lines from "Le Brasier" describe this vision; this "unique lumiere":

Descendant des hauteurs ou pense la lumiere

Jardins rouant plus haut que tous les cieux mobiles 156

L'avenir masque flambe en traversant les cieux.

The second part starts with the poet questioning his own identity in contrast with his ability to perceive the identities of people other than himself through the five senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. A catalogue of examples of this sensory perception occupies lines 25 to 47; the smell of a small dog brings to mind the history and myth surrounding the city of

Cologne, in a whimsical three line passage in this section.

In the third section of this part Apollinaire re-introduces himself:

Un jour je m'attendais moi-meme

Je me disais Guillaume il est temps que tu viennes.

In lines 50 to 65 he begins the enumeration, in an oniric sequence, of the personages and things important to him, a rose held in the hand, the sea and all that dwells in it, the people he wanted to reach out to. The poet realising all the while that he was built up of such contributory factors.

The concluding part of the poem, lines 66 to 73, contrasts the lifeless, colourless, shapeless and empty world of the present with that of the past shining in all its glory. The poet re-affirms that it is the past which will carry his works of art forward into the future and thus grant him immortality. The effort will create the effect.

This poem is an exercise in metaphysics and self-analysis.

It shows that Apollinaire was capable of developing a poetic theme from the most minor occurence. The concept of flying.down to brightness is a brilliant one. He seemed to be aware that the 157 world he lived in, was an upside-down one. He tries to distinguish between the man and the poet all the while realising that the past has contributed to both aspects of his personality.

"LES FIANCAILLES"(P.0. , 128-1908)

This work is, in effect, a collection of nine poems and shares its origin with "Le Brasier", it has a family resemblance to "Lui de Faltenin" in that it describes the pangs and rewards of the act of poetic creativity.

1908 was a year when Apollinaire's relationship with Marie

Laurencin was favorable as far as the two lovers were concerned but one should not try to read into this poem any indication of a formal betrothal since Marie's mother was very much against such a move.

The work was dedicated to Picasso whose paintings of the

"Blue" and "Rose" period were much admired by Apollinaire; however both the poet and the painter underwent a striking change in their attitude to their work at this time. Apollinaire with the series of poems beginning with "Lui de Faltenin" followed by

"Onirocritique", Les Fiancailles", "Le Brasier", "Cortege" and the majority of his pre-war poems; Picasso with the ground• breaking "Les Demoiselles d'Avighon". Apollinaire was quick to detect this change in his friend's approach to art and commented on it in his article on Picasso in his collection of essays Les

Peintres Cubistes, Meditations esth£tiques; the secondary title was favoured by the author who himself was trying to formulate

his ideas with much difficulty as revealed in the following lines 158 which recalled the problems they experienced.11

Hommes crees a 1'image de Dieu, ils se reposeront un

jour pour admirer leur ouvrage. Mais que de fatigues,

que d'imperfection, que de grossieretes!

Leroy C. Breunig has drawn attention to the foregoing link between the two friends in observing that: 12

[...] dans sa meilleure poesie Apollinaire partageait

avec Picasso et les meilleurs cubistes 1'esprit heroique

et 1'inquietude terrible dont cette peinture est

impregnee.

The nine poems have been numbered for convenience in identi•

fication with Roman numerals and the comments have been inset

when they are relative to the poem itself.

I In the first of the nine poems the poet takes

a fond look at the symbolist themes and inspirations of

his earlier poetry, the illusory love which characterised

the year in the Rhineland> the blue of the distant

villages recalls the blue eyelids of Annie that were once

compared to the blue of the autumn crocus in "Les

Colchiques" and the blue bird harks back to "La Tzigane".

Apollinaire found that the first three stanzas of "Le

Printemps" suited his mood perfectly, so he copied them out

with minor modifications to provide the start of

"Fiancailles". It is not surprising to find him doing this

since Apollinaire had a somewhat limited stock of poetic

images which tend to re-occur in his poetry.

Although the mood changes completely in the second poem 159

one should guard against identifying this as a sign of the

bipolar disorder that afflicted the poet between 1902 and

1905. This poem and the remaining seven poems form a

progression which has challenged the exegetic skills of

Scott Bates, Anne Hyde Greet and Leroy Breunig. Their work

has been found to be of great assistance in the following

analysis.13

II Symbolizes the death of love, a sleep-like trance and

an awakening to find that women are no longer saintly.

Lines 13 and 14 were culled, with minor modifications

from a poem of 1902, "Les Villes sont pleines",in which

Apollinaire described life in the industrial cities he

visited in Germany and the effect they had on him.

The statement that his friends are disdainful in the

first line of this poem reminds one of Max Jacob's

frequent comment regarding Apollinaire's efforts to

change his style: "Encore trop symboliste!"

The underlying themes are a desire to sweep away the

dusty relics of symbolism and the remembrance of the

personal anguish he had experienced after the break-up

with Annie.14

Ill The poet is struck dumb (one is reminded of the totally

unproductive year of 190 6) and the poet faces the end of

the world.

IV The mood changes to reminiscence and the recognition of

the Present in the shape of the pretty and witty mulatto

girl who of course is Marie Laurencin. 160

V The spark is fanned into a flame of poetic inspiration to

such an extent that the poet assumes God-like powers and

can assert quite confidently that:

Je medite divinement

Et je souris des etres que je n'ai pas crees

Mais si le temps venait ou 1'ombre enfin solide

Se multipliait. en realisant la diversite formelle de mon

amour

J'admirerais mon ouvrage.

The poet acknowledges that he has wiped the old slate of

symbolism clean and that he now has but one love, Marie

Laurencin, as he sings:

Je ne sais plus rien et j'aime uniquement.

VI The poet is overcome by the excitement of poem V and, as

he rests, asks how his five bodily senses and love's

ardour can be related to "1'esprit heroique et

1'inquietude terrible" that was referred to by Leroy C.

Breunig. Apollinaire tried to make the poetic connection

between the taste of and desire for laurel noted by

Petrarch, and the surname of his mistress by an oblique

reference in the last line of this part, thereby demons•

trating once again his mastery of the use of puns.

The void created by his abandonment of the old worn out

trappings of symbolism is now about to be filled with new

monstrous images not the least of which is the one he

has identified with the taste of laurel.

VII This is a joyous ode in celebration of his new found 161

love, the poet wants to share his happiness with whoever

happens to pass by. There is a ring of simultaneity to

this part, a catalogue of everything happening at once.

Lines 4 and 5 are to be found in slightly different form

in "Le Printemps".

VIII In an indirect reference to the unfortunate mariners of

"Lui de Faltenin" the poet stresses that now all is well

with him as he identifies himself with the now happy

sailors as their ships disappear over the horizon.

The last two lines were borrowed from "Le Printemps"

and preserve the spring-like theme of that poem.

Apollinaire was a firm believer in astrology being born

under the sign of Virgo in the third month of Summer.

IX The last poem is very obscure and reflects the extreme

difficulty that Apollinaire experienced in writing poetry

at this time. He was obsessed with fire particularly in an

abstract sense. He compares himself with the Knights Templar

who were burned at the stake partly for their religious

beliefs (Gnosticism, favoured by Apollinaire, for one), he

sees himself as a martyr purified by fire and foretells his

own death at 40.

His onward rush towards extinction is similar to that of

a knight of the Middle Ages tilting with his lance at the

quintain. Perhaps the poet realised in this passage

which is steeped with sexual connotation that his sexual

urges would only lead him into misery.

The last quatrain celebrates the demise of uncertainty, 162

henceforth the poet will embrace all the forces acting on

him and recognize their simultaneous existence as he goes

forth like the brave Templars of old.15

To sum up, Apollinaire, the poet, has succeeded in forging a new weapon in his poetic armoury which has brought him joy for the immediate present. However Apollinaire, the man, realises that the way ahead may result in misery, even death, if he gives in to the driving forces that provide the inspiration.

As regards the poem itself, and the manifold difficulties

Apollinaire experienced in writing it, as evidenced by the complex series of borrowings from other poems and the repeated changes in the drafts, Leroy C. Breunig had this to say:16

[...] once we accept 'Les Fiancailles' as a means of

approaching the author at work, it is perhaps without

equal in all the poetry of Apollinaire, for the battle

which we have the privilege of reliving with him was one

of the most intense, and definitely the most decisive in

his entire poetic life.

"POEME LU AU MARIAGE D'ANDRE SALMON" (P.0.,83-1909)

The poem bears the date July 13 190 9- and this is acceptable because the night before the wedding Apollinaire worked away at the poem and put the finishing touches to it on the way to the wedding; he read it during the wedding feast at Andre's mother- in-law's home. Apollinaire probably read the poem, written in blank verse, a form dear to the symbolists of the "Belle Epoque", from a rough draft, still in existence, which shows that the 163 second part of this work gave him much difficulty.17

Andre Salmon had been a friend of Apollinaire's for some time, both loved frequenting the bars and cafes-chantant in the

Montmartre district, before he, like many of the coterie of poets and artists, left the north of Paris for the Left Bank.

Andre had a steady job at L' Intransigent, and the prospect of a better one at the Paris-Journal. He had met a Mile Marie-

Jeanne Blazy-Escarpette at the home of Maud Robbe, an English dancer, in Paris. They decided to take advantage of the festivity surrounding the French National Holiday by getting married the day before, and had among the witnesses, Apollinaire and Rene

Dalize while Marie Laurencin was maid of honour. The wedding group, some ten in all, had a great time dancing in the streets.

Andre relates that the group went for rides on a fair-ground carousel, Marie on a giraffe, Dalize on a lion with a poodle's face and Apollinaire on a tiny Elephant; how very apt!18

The poem starts with a series of negations intended to prove that only poets who can renew the world with their art, not the festive celebrants recalling the taking of the Bastille, nor those who imitate the principle of liberty with honour, nor those who were sacrificed because they did not know how to benefit from life. The first part ends with a wry statement that Paris was decorated because the poet's friend Andre was getting married that day.

It is generally agreed that it was not the cellar of the cafe "Le Depart" that was wretched, the epithet applied to the penniless poets who frequented the place to hear each other's 164 works. Apollinaire was fond of the image of broken wine-glasses which he introduces on account of the long table, cleared except for the two friends glasses, resembling a coffin covered with a shroud. The sudden shattering of the wine-glasses broke the tension and forced the friends to laugh instead of crying into them and bemoaning their lot. Marie-Jeanne Durry has a plausible explanation for "le dernier regard d'Orphee", the backward glance has the effect of making the object of the regard disappear and the patron God of poets must die each time they search for novel techniques and skills.19

The remaining stanzas in this second part relate the many times Andre and Guillaume shared the same thoughts and experiences. The part concludes with the child-like admission that their secrets must now be made .known because "my friend is getting married."

The last part once again • starts off with a series of negations with the essential difference that they take the form

"not because" with the conjunction introducing an affirmation.

The most notable of the latter are the statements that the two poets have grown in stature to such an extent that their eyes are full of stars,• that they can weep unashamedly and laugh uproariously and that, most importantly, they, born to poetry, have the rights to the words that make and break the universe.

The poem ends with an invocation to rejoice because Love, the God of fire and poets, has, like the Light, filled the solid space between the distant stars and the planets and insists that

Guillaume's friend Andre Salmon be married. Timothy Mathews has 165 drawn attention to the combination of assertion and sensation that characterises so much of 'Alcools' and is present in the lines:20

L'amour qui emplit ainsi que la lumiere

Tout le solide espace entre les etoiles et les planetes

One cannot help being struck with the musicality of the lines of blank verse in this poem, they have an almost

Shakespearian quality.

"1909" (P.O.,138-1909)

The identity of the laughing lady of fashion to whom

Apollinaire devoted twenty-two of the twenty-nine lines comprising this poem in blank verse will remain a mystery. She was probably the personification of the year 1909, in which a return to the fashions of the "Directoire" period was first noted, a welcome change from the tightly corseted styles that deformed women's bodies, until then.

Lines 7 to 11 were borrowed from a three quintil poem about low life in Paris titled "L'Anguille" while the description of the dress is related to a similar one in "0 France, France ma patrie" written by Apollinaire under the guise of Louise Lalanne.

The last seven lines recollect the years 1905 to 1906 when

Apollinaire was at a loose end and probably meeting up with working class prostitutes. He came to realise the importance of machinery and the new inventions to everyday life, something that he gave voice to, in this and later poems. There is perhaps a reference to the economic truism that luxury goods are often the 166 product of people working under squalid conditions.

"VENDEMIAIRE" (0 . P . , 14 9-190 9)

"Vendemiaire" was intended as a part of an epic poem entitled "L'Annee republicaine" to be written at the instance of

Jules Romains. Apollinaire was interested for a short time only in the Unanimists led by Romains, this group advocated simultaneity and ubiquity. Marcel Decaudin established the probable year of composition as on 1909 after consideration of possible alternatives. The Unanimist connection confirms this since Apollinaire had not paid any attention to the Unanimists before 1908 .21

Three sections were written for inclusion in the epic, the second was "Brumaire", later renamed "Cortege", and the third, untitled, became "Zone". Vendemiaire was the first month of the

Republican calendar and corresponds to September, the vintage month.

Apollinaire in a letter to his friend Madeleine Pages dated

30th July 1915, written just prior to his engagement to her, made a confession about his former love Marie Laurencin, about the traumatic experience in connection with the theft of the Mona

Lisa and about his preferences among the works he had written. He indicated that of all the 'Alcools' poems, he preferred

"Vendemiaire", he also liked "Le Voyageur" and hardly remembered a line of "Zone".22

It is small wonder that Guillaume liked "Vendemiaire"; he was a twentieth century Rabelais and no stranger to drunkenness. 167

Patrick Truhn in his essay on the poem describes him vividly:23

...: nocturnal flaneur, privileged recorder of an

illustrious past and a tumultuous present, prophet of an

apocalyptic future.

The poem, the end-piece of 'Alcools' is approximately the same length as "Zone", the opening work of the anthology, the general theme is one of hope, as opposed to "Zone" which is redolent of despair. In common with the poems of this period

(1908-1909) such as "Les Fiancailles, "Cortege" and "Le Brasier",

"Vendemiaire" is noteworthy in that form takes second place to content; in fact the use of Alexandrines in the poem is dependent on whether the poet chose to create special effects. The bulk of the poem is however in blank verse.

The poem is divisible into several sections, seven of which are responses of various cities and regions to the poet's invitation to slake the thirst he shares with his beloved Paris; these are Britanny (lines 23-38), the industrial cities of the

North of France (39-49), Lyons (50-58), the towns of Provence

(59-65), Sicily (66-76), Rome (94-112) and Koblenz 113-135.

Lines 1-21, written in alexandrines serve as an

introduction, lines 77-93, also in alexandrines, were inspired by the dangerous Straits of Messina that divide Sicily from Italy,

the subject matter has nothing at all- to do with wine and the

reason for the insertion of this interlude is unclear. Of the

remaining sections of the poem lines 136-166 are a catalogue of

all sorts of items that interested Apollinaire and were showered

on the poet rather than on Paris as was the case in the seven 168 sections referred to earlier. Lines 167-174 reflect the return of the poet-flaneur to the banks of the Seine as the lights go out at dawn after a long night out.

The sections outlined in the preceding two paragraphs deserve further analysis. The first section (lines 1-21) contains six stanzas which provide progressively greater detail of time and place in the first three and introduce the thirst and wine themes that permeate the poem in the last three. The date of composition was probably September 1909 as Apollinaire was living in the Auteuil suburb at the time because he wanted to be near his Marie Laurencin. A revolutionary at heart Apollinaire noted that European kingdoms were being reduced in number by assassinations and the advent of more and more republican forms of government. There are two imperatives in this section: in the first invitation the reader is asked to remember the poet,

Apollinaire had an almost morbid fear that he might be forgotten after his death, in the second, more specific, he personalises

Paris and provides her with his own throat and immense thirst.

Brittany, in the second section, is a region hardly noted for wine production, so it offers instead its ancient myth and legend. Merlin hailed from Brittany, and Apollinaire was so affected by the old stories that they provided the inspiration for "L'Enchanteur pourrissant" and "Merlin et la vieille femme".

Apollinaire justifies the inclusion of Brittany by means of the puns in line 35 and 37. Double raison sounds the same as double raisin; if the country has no grapes, it has tradition and a rugged beauty to offer Paris, another region that produces no 169 wine to speak of despite the poet's statement to the contrary in line 20.

The industrial cities of the area immediately to the north of Paris similarly have little land devoted to viniculture but a wealth of manufactured goods, from their rattling machinery and factories impregnating the clouds above with the smoke from their

"holy" chimneys in the same way that Ixion impregnated Hera and fathered the Centaurs. Their products are offered instead, which makes it clear that what the poet and his alter ego - Paris per• sonified - thirst after is, not necessarily a drink, but rather all that the present and the past have to offer.

It is now the turn of the city of Lyons to bring her gifts.

This time it is the history of rebellion and sorrow, of the take• over of the city by the Protestants-, later massacred, of Henri,

Marquis de Cinq-Mars and his associate Jacques de Thou executed by Richelieu, of the assassination of President Sadi Carnot and the martyrdom of Saint Pothin the city's first bishop in Trajan's

Forum now the site of the basilica of Fourvieres. Lyons is situated at the confluence of the Sa6ne and Rhone rivers and the image of the child at the window was prompted by Apollinaire's boyhood reminiscence of that city. In this section the idea of offering is linked to sacrifice and thus to the celebration of the Eucharist. Apollinaire, the agnostic, is still affected by the religious experiences of his youth, but remains fascinated by the succession of heresies that had such a divisive effect.

Desaltere-toi Paris avec les divines paroles

Que mes levres le RhQne et la Sa6ne murmurent 170

Toujours le meme culte de sa mort renaissant

Divise ici les saints et fait pleuvoir le sang

Heureuse pluie 6 gouttes tiedes 6 douleur.

Philippe Renaud notes the repetition of "ivres oiseaux" in lines 8 and 58, in the first instance they are drunk with the poet's own glory hence the gift of heavenly words delivered to the drunken birds may be considered also as the seed of poetry when placed in the hands of the Poet.24

Provence, once completely autonomous, strains under the weight of the tribute that the region has had to pay to Paris ever since her Dukedom was broken up into little pieces just as the Host is broken before being dipped into the sacrificial wine.

In the poem "Zone", linked in many respects to "Vendemiaire",

Apollinaire relates how, as a schoolboy, he used to pray all night in the college chapel. Line 64 may well be an echo of this event since the boy felt orphaned without a father to confide in.25

Sicily, a 'country with a troubled and bloody past, experienced an earthquake in December 1908, hence the always troubled waters of the Straits of Messina must have heaved and hissed like a many-headed snake. The island groans under its past and present misfortunes, even its wine reeks of blood and earth,

Marsala does indeed have a special taste! Apollinaire paints a woeful picture of recently formed, hungry, threatening clouds that cause even the crows to escape . to the sunnier shores of

Africa.

The interlude inspired by the narrow straits, between the 171

Scylla and Charybdis reefs and the powerful whirlpools therein, could well have been left out except for lines 92 and 93 without disturbing the onward flow of the poem and its dionysian imagery.

The doom and gloom that covered Sicily appears to have lifted temporarily over the straits, sufficiently to allow a god• like young man, probably Orpheus, to lead the way across the turbulence, the siren birds, luring men to their doom, appear to have lost their powers of attraction as the many victims reached for the setting sun. The imagery is typically Apollinarian and it must be admitted that the interlude provides a welcome break from the quasi geographical recital of place names that seemed to drift further and further from Paris. The fact that the entire passage is in Alexandrine verse sets it quite apart and achieves the poet's objective most effectively as well as providing a natural bridge to the response of Rome.

The crossing of Orpheus to Rome must be read in the context of lines 123-125 where Paris is lauded as being not only the most beautiful but also the only noble city, the only place fit for the gods including the god of poetry, and a worthy successor to

Rome as the metropolis of the arts, and a site for Dionysian revels and mysteries.

The invocation "0 Rome" is the only instance where it has been made in respect of a city other than Paris. The ancient city must allow outdated thoughts and forms of poetry to be spurned in favour of love and the illimitable heavens which will be the new material of poetry. The stanza comprising lines 98 to 103 picks up the theme of the Eucharist but the image of Christ's death and rebirth is linked through the phenomenon of the death and rebirth of plants to a personalized Rome who gives the sacramental wine through the agency of a personalized Paris to the poet with a mission to create immortal poetry. Most of the next stanza is devoted to a description of the deteriorating democracy that was once the capital of the world. The ghosts of cruel emperors will return to drink the city's two thousand year old wine and kill all the animals, the wolves and the lambs, the eagles and the doves.

The name Koblenz is derived from the Latin word

"confluentes", and the city is situated where two great rivers meet, the Rhine and the Moselle, both famous for the excellent wines produced in their valleys. Apollinaire was knowledgeable about wine, and he is correct in stating that the best French wines are superior to their German counterparts. German viticulturists are particularly fussy about the correct ripening of their grapes for the wines which are largely exported.

A prophetic vision taken straight out of Revelation 14:20 describing the wine-press flowing with human blood presages the the blood bath that was World War I which was fought in many of the fine wine growing areas of France. Koblenz too had its share of occupation and battle; the French seized the city during the

Napoleonic wars. The remembrance of those events would have troubled the sleep of the maidens in the city.

Trier an ancient city, known to the French as Treves, is the

site of twice yearly auctions of the wine from the Moselle. Its mention seems an afterthought; however this short passage 173 provides a bridge to twenty-one lines of description of wine in unanimist terms. Anne Hyde Greet's analysis of this passage in the notes accompanying her translation of 'Alcools' is as follows:26

[Wine] consists of all living things (1.142), of the

past 1.146) and the future (1.142), of man's conquest

over death by faith (1.143), ofhis conquest over nature

by iron and fire (11.144-145). Human thought, in its

various forms, flavours the wine (11.146-150) as do the

human games of war (11.151-152), of love (11.152 and

153) and of poetry (11.151 and 154); [...].

Apollinaire's proclaimed inability to express his

vision (11.155 and 156) is comparable to passages in

"Fiancailles" [...].

The poet in forceful verses announces that he has experienced all that the world has to offer a poet, he has drunk it all in. He recognizes the flavour of the wine but his thirst still rages on and he reserves the right to continue so that he can use his magic and his gift of prophecy. Lines 161-174 thus provide a fitting end to one of Apollinaire's masterpieces.

"Vendemiaire" has so many aspects: it is partly a travelogue with multiple references to the history, geographic and economic

features of the places he has selected for the poem, it displays a profound knowledge of Holy Writ and the various heresies that affected religion through the ages, there is an undying love of

Paris, and evidence of all the good things available there that make life worth while. In addition we can find in it, evidence of 174

Apollinaire's amazing gift of prophecy and an abiding faith that he will, one day, create poetry.that will be immortal. 175

NOTES: CHAPTER 8

1 Marcel Adema and Michel Decaudin eds., Apollinaire Oeuvres

Poetigues (Paris :.Bibliotheque de la Pleiade, Gallimard, 1956)

1051 & 1117.

2 Stuart Bates, Guillaume Apollinaire (New York: Twayne'

Publishers Inc, 1967) 27.

3 Mechtild Cranston, "Sortir d'Orkenise, relections sur

'Onirocritique', xLe Brasier' et *Les Fiancailles'," Gui11aume

Apollinaire, 8., La Revue des lettres modernes .166-169

(1967): 53-73.

4 Richard Henry Stamelman, The drama of self in Guillaume

Apol1inaire's xAlcools' (Chapel Hill: Univ of North Carolina P.,

1976) 79.

5 Peter Frohlicher, xLe Brasier' d'Apol1inaire lecture

semiotique, Archives Guillaume Apollinaire n° 7 (Paris: Lettres modernes, 1983) 15.

6 Dictionnaire de Tr^voux qtd. in Peter Frohlicher,

Le Brasier d'Apol1inaire 51.

7 Marie-Jeanne Durry, 3, 162-168. 176

8 Marie-Jeanne Durry, Riiillanmfl Apol 1 inai T-P 'Alr.nnl.s' 2

(Paris: S.E.D.E.S., 1964) 213.

9 R.H. Stamelman, 40 - 53.

10 R.H. Stamelman, 42.

11 Guillaume Apollinaire, Te^ Peintres nubisr.es (Paris:

Hermann, 1965.) 66.

12 Leroy C. Breunig, Apollinaire et Le Cubisme." C-ui 11 aume

Apollinaire. 1. La Revue des lettres modernes 69-70 (1962) : .21.

13 Scott Bates. 87-94.

Anne Hyde Greet, trans., Alcools Guillaume Apollinaire

(Berkeley: Univ. of California P.) 266-278.

Leroy C. Breunig, "Apollinaire's 'Les Fiancailles',"

Essays in French Literature, Nedlands 3 (1965) : 1-32.

14 Susan Harro'w, "'Les Fiancailles' cristallisation d'un amour," Guillaume Apollinaire. 8. La Revue des lettres modernes

805-811 (1987): 125.

15 Leroy Breunig, Apol1inaire's 'Les Fiancailles' 28.

15 Leroy C. Breunig, Apol1inaire's 'Les Fiancailles' 29.

15 Michel Decaudin, "Complements a un' dossier," Gui 1 laume

Apol 1 inaire, 1, T,a Revue des lettres modernes 69-70 (1962): 57-8.

18 Andre Salmon, Souvenirs sans fin, deuxieme epoque (1908-

1920) (Paris: Gallimard, 1956) 140-141.

19 Marie-Jeanne Durry, 3, 184.

20 Timothy Mathews, Reading Apollinaire (Manchester: U of

Manchester P, 1987) 129.

21 Michel Decaudin, Le Dossier d' 'Alrnols' 177

22 Guillaume Apollinaire, Tendre r.omme le souvenir (Paris :

Gallimard, 1952) 70.

23 J.Patrick Truhn, "The wave of wine: revolution and

revelation in Apollinaire's 'Vendemiaire'," Romanic Review, 72

(1981): 40.

24 Philippe Renaud, Lecture d'Apollinaire (Lausanne :

L'Age d'Homme, 1969) 138.

25 Philippe Renaud, 138.

26 Anne Hyde Greet, 285. 178

CHAPTER 9

THE YEARS OF HAPPINESS AND STRESS, PART II, 1910-1912

"LE VOYAGEUR" (0.P.,78-1910)

Le Voyageur is one of Apollinaire's most beautiful poems but it contains passages that have provoked only educated guesses from experts in the field of Apollinarian commentary. It has the marks of being a precursor of "Zone" with the important difference that it has very little of the theme of modernity that is a feature of the latter poem.

Apollinaire the poet is a traveller through a dreamland of his past experiences but these are far less personal than those to be found in "Zone", "Le Brasier" and the other major poems of the 1907-1912 period. The various scenes he describes are devoid of sequential temporal or spatial arrangement, in fact they are just like the helter-skelter random assortment of pictures usually found in family photographic albums; Apollinaire realises this and in line 48 asks the very question that is so often asked when the owner of an album leafs through it with his friends or relatives. Qui done reconnais-tu.. .

However some journeys can be identified. The first of which are the crossings of the English Channel to meet Annie Playden.

Apollinaire was struck by the loneliness of a ship at sea which he compared to his situation now that his romance with Marie

Laurencin was threatened; ever observant, he saw flower-like beauty in the curving wavelets.

The second would have been the railway journey from Remagen opposite Honnef on the Rhine to Paris in August 1902. The trip was a leisurely one and left quite an impression on Apollinaire who must have been trying to find some distraction from his painful thoughts about Annie. Treves (Trier) was a stop on the way and earned a mention in "Vendemiaire"; so was Luxemburg where he decided to have a drink. The Industrial cities .of the North of

France would have been noticed as the train approached Paris and on other journeys such as the visits to. Holland- and Belgium during the years when Industry was expanding and environmental concerns were of no account. Apollinaire's ability to store impressions for future use are reflected in his subsequent graphic descriptions of night and day operations of the smelters and blast furnaces that appear in lines 19 and 20. A similar example was the passage in "Vendemiaire", concerning the same industrial area. We can hear the train as it roars through the stations and trips warning bells in line 18 and 24.

The third journey described in the poem is made up of still more sights the poet saw and now remembers as though in a dream.

The Rhine from Bacharach to Honnef is particularly beautiful and 180 the poet could not fail to be impressed with its precipitous banks and the abundance of evergreen trees. Apollinaire's visits to the Low Countries are reflected in the poet's references to the river disappearing into the sea.

"Le Voyageur" is extraordinarily evocative of the sights one sees as a train or ship moves swiftly through space. The illusion that the compartment one is riding in is standing still, while the countryside and towns are moving swiftly by, is a common one, but Apollinaire has succeeded in creating marvellous images out of this common phenomenon. We catch a fleeting glimpse of a butcher's dray rolling on its way slowly to market. We notice trees whose shadows, elongated by the early morning or late evening sun, take on the shape of bearded warriors armed with long sharp-pointed lances. We observe bridges following each other like platoons of soldiers marching in review order as the train stands seemingly to attention. We see towns with pale grey facades like the ashen countenances of alcoholic madwomen slip and slide on their ugly way past our window.

The theme of remembrance is very evident in "Le Voyageur".

Various tenses of the verb "se souvenir" are scattered throughout the poem (lines 5, 9, 17, 30, and 48. The reference to the photographic album in line 47 maintains the mood of recollection.

The four quatrains of regular alexandrines, lines 31 to 46,

"pasted" into this poem from an earlier source are almost devoid

of this commemorative device, they rely instead on a judicious use of the imperfect tense, for the narrative effect.

The reference to the two sailors, his friends and the dusky 181 women is most puzzling. The reproduction of the picture of Albert and his brother Guillaume in sailor suits has been carefully examined, a dark ring is faintly distinguishable above the striped under-shirt worn by Guillaume, however Albert's hair is cut quite straight with no evidence of plaits. Several suggestions have been made that this old photograph was the source of Apollinaire's inspiration. These hypotheses are dubious, at best. The photograph was in his mother's possession, not the poet's. It is far more probable that Apollinaire saw the two sailors on the ferry while crossing the English Channel, although the image of the younger one falling overboard seems to be a morbid thought reflecting the poet's state of mind. It is curious that the younger . sailor re-appears in line 52 after meeting his sad fate in line 24.

The following notes are intended to supplement the commentary set forth above.

The poet, at line 1, feels that the gateway to the Heaven of poetic creativity is barred in the same way as it was to the foolish virgins in the Gospel according to Saint Matthew (XXV.3) who were not smart enough to ensure that they had enough lamp-oil to light their way when the bridegroom came at midnight. The poet had high hopes that, on the other side of the door, he would find love, happiness and an explanation of the human condition that he found so very incomprehensible.1

In line 2 Apollinaire recognizes that his life has been and will continue to be full of ups and downs: moments of ineffable

joy followed by periods of the deepest depression. There is an 182 unspoken realization that the same bipolar psychosis that was triggered by his loss of Annie has flared up again with the end of his relationship with Marie Laurencin. The strait of Euripus which separated Euboea from Boeotia was notorious for the frequency in which the fast moving tidal currents changed direction.

Lines 3 & 4. here the poet personalizes the ship under the menacing clouds as his own persona, faced with an uncertain future of loneliness.

There is, in lines 11 to 16, a charming vignette of the two

Luxemburgian villagers with their somewhat unusual pets as they played cards under the benevolent gaze of Christ ascending. A beautiful example of Apollinaire's detailed memory of such minor incidents in his life. The "toi" in line 17 is in the nature of a flashback to the year with Annie, he suspects her having already forgotten him. Apollinaire was jealous of the schoolmaster in

Bennerscheid near Mme de Milhau's property, and it is presumed that Annie did not leave the Rhineland until a month or two after

Guillaume's departure.

The use of the word "orphelin" in line 4 and "orphelinat" in line 18 to describe the loneliness of a ship in the middle of the ocean and the sense of abandonment that one feels in the impersonal surroundings of a railway station is a clever touch, intended to reveal the inner feelings of the disconsolate poet.

"Orphelin" with its strong sense of being bereft has a somewhat deeper meaning in French than in English.

The poet takes leave of the countryside as the train 183 approaches the suburbs of Paris and his uncertain future lies before him; his recollection of the doleful procession of landscapes in line 31 strikes just the right note of foreboding.

It is hard to identify the bird in line 34. An educated guess is that the reference is to Annie and the worsening

relations with her that occurred just before he left the

Rhineland in August 1902.

Apollinaire was prone to metamorphose sad memories of the past into dead souls. The word "mourants" is used here as an

adjective, with "glances" implied. There are many other instances

of this particular construction elsewhere in Apollinaire7s poetic works.

Line 44 is almost certainly descriptive of the rocky height

from which Loreley plunged to her death.

As regards lines 49 and 50, perhaps the most beautiful in the poem, premonitions played a large part in the life of

Apollinaire; thus the sight of a bee, an insect sacred to Apollo,

falling into a fire is a form of death wish. "Le Brasier"

develops the theme of fire as a cleanser and rejuvenator much

further than in this poem. Fire and the phoenix myth are of

enormous importance in so much of Apollinaire's poetry, few poems

fail to incorporate some aspect of "feu" a word that translates

into both fire and flame.

The discontinuity of this poem has already been hinted at

earlier in this commentary but there is a thread that Apollinaire

spun through it as shown by the late Mme Marie-Jeanne Durry:2

Or un peu d'attention suffit pour y faire percevoir: 184

une continuite logique; une continuite de l'etre toujours

le meme a travers les "je", les "moi", les "tu" qui ne

sont que les personnages du dialogue interieur; une

continuite de la figuration due a des images dont il ne

sera pas difficile de montrer les parentes; une continuite

du langage due a des repetitions de mots, au leitmotiv du

souvenir, a des sortes des refrains comme celui des deux

matelots, acteurs intermittents, imprevus, et fort a leur

place la ou 1'image initiale a ete celle d'un grand

bateau. II y a meme une construction tout a fait

ostensible, 1'encadrement du poeme entre les deux vers du

debut et les deux de la fin, qui sont les memes repris en

ordre inverse. Elle n'est pas artificielle: ni le voyage

du reel ni celui du reve n'aboutissent a autre chose qu'a

cette porte toujours fermee que jamais homme ne parviendra

a se faire ouvrir.

The "voyage reel" has. been established, by the Channel crossings, the trips- down the Rhine, the visit to Amsterdam and the return journey from the Rhineland. The. "voyage de reve" has provided additional insights into Apollinaire's personality. The poem is a sad one, there several lines that indicate how lonely the poet felt, there is evidence of morbidity and of the bipolar disorder that plagued Apollinaire when he was frustrated in his love affairs. Doors seem to be either sneering at him as in "La

Porte" when he was desperately looking for work or slammed shut as in "Le Voyageur" when all he sought was love.

Keen observation of everyday things has been converted into 185 beautiful poetic imagery.

"A LA SANTE" (O.P.,140-1911)

Apollinaire was charged with complicity in the theft of the

Mona Lisa painting from the Louvre, manacled and committed to the

Sante prison in Paris. One cannot under-estimate the tremendous shock that the poet experienced, he had made a name for himself as an established poet and newspaper columnist and was now branded as a common criminal. The fact that he was photographed, handcuffed to a gendarme, and the very newspaper he contributed to, published the photograph was perhaps the cruellest blow of all; poor Guillaume, all he could say was "Qui a pu me faire ca".

It was not long after this event that his relationship with Marie

Laurencin worsened, these two causes brought on a recurrence of the mental illness that first manifested itself when he lost

Annie Playden.

As usual the poet, when faced with an emotional crisis, reverted to the regular prosody of the Rhineland poems, but continued to use lines from earlier works or rough drafts. For instance, the second poem in the "A la Sante" series incorporates in its first three lines exactly similar wording found by Francis

Ambriere in a note-book containing a rough draft of Apollinaire's prose work "La Femme assise".3

The imprisonment resulted, at least temporarily, in

Apollinaire regaining his faith in religion, witness the lines in the fourth poem: 186

Que deviendrai-je 6 Dieu qui connais ma douleur

Toi qui me l'as donnee

Prends en pitie mes yeux sans larmes ma pSleur

Le bruit de ma chaise enchainee.

The "Ambriere" drafts which Apollinaire suppressed from the definitive 'Alcools' version because of an unwillingness to share his secrets with others, illustrate the return to religion quite

forcibly:

Et je viens de dire un rosaire

Avec mes doigts pour chapelet

0 Vierge sainte ecoutez-les

Ecoutez mes pauvres prieres.

Vierge plus douce que le' sucre

Vierge qui m'avez protege.

In 1916, when faced with another mental crisis arising out

of his suffering a wound to his right temple, while in the trenches, and expecting an onset of paralysis in his arm,

Apollinaire seriously considered retreating to a monastery. It is probable that he thought of doing likewise while sitting in his

cell in prison.

Yet another borrowing appears in the fifth poem' which

consists of five lines culled from the third verse of a very

graphic five stanza poem written while in prison, the first line

of which reads "Je suis Guillaume Apollinaire" and goes on to

describe the horror of living in a cell once occupied by a

murderer; it reflects the influence of Francois Villon, and is 187 another item unearthed by Francis Ambriere.4

This fifth poem is perhaps the most important one in the series. In it Apollinaire takes up a point of view from which he can consider from far off, by use of his imagination, the distancing of the current hours and to weep over their loss. In other words he has the simultaneous role of living in the present and being a survivor. It is not the poet but time that has passed irretrievably. As for himself he remains as in the famous line from "Le Pont Mirabeau".5

Les jours s'en vont je demeure

It is now easy to understand why Apollinaire deleted a sixth line in the third verse of the "Villonesque" draft:

Guillaume avant que tu ne meures.

The theme of the passage of time was cleverly stated in "La

Souris, a poem in the "Bestiaire" anthology:

Belles journees,souris du temps,

Vous rongez peu a peu ma vie.

In "A la Sante" the poet varies the temporal theme with:

Adieu adieu chantante ronde

0 mes annees 6 jeunes filles.

Dance was often an inspiration to Apollinaire, apart from the line just quoted, the poet described the dancing sunbeams that seemed to defy his efforts to write poetry and the measured tread of feet on the ceiling above his head in the second "A la

Sante" poem.

Anne Hyde Greet has drawn attention to the musicality of these six short poems and their intense assonance.6 Once again 188 the poet has shown that he is capable of extraordinarily beautiful poetry when afflicted by stressful pressures whether caused by the loss of love or freedom.

"LE PONT MIRABEAU" (0.P./45-1911)

From a structural standpoint there are two versions of this poem, one of the most melodious in any language. The first one, written in the fall of 1911 and published in the first issue of

Les Soirees de Paris, comprised four decasyllabic tercets each line of which ended in a feminine rhyme, these were separated by a non-rhyming refrain of heptasyllabic couplets. This format was going out of style at the end of the sixteenth century, which has prompted researchers to look for models on which Apollinaire might have constructed his poem. Mario Roques has made a case for a poem composed in the twelfth century, the celebrated "Chanson de Gayette et Oriour" in which the prosody was structurally the same, but his arguments on the score of rhythm, movement and grammatical construction are not very convincing.7 Apollinaire was quite an expert on medieval literature but it is doubtful whether he gave more than a passing glance to a work a copy of which was available to him in the form of a reprint The refrain does however bear a strong resemblance to Francois Villon: the twenty-third stanza of "Le Grand Testament" contains the line

"Alle s'en est, et je demeure".8

When Apollinaire decided to include the poem in xAlcools' he had to decide where to put it and settled for the second slot immediately after "Zone". At the same time he suppressed the 189 punctuation and improved the musicality of the poem by breaking the second line of the tercet in two; a line of four , feet

followed by one of six, thereby creating quatrains; by so doing

Apollinaire broke up the regular rhyming pattern which could be

said to be monotonous. Of the four short lines, that call for a pause at the end of each, the first, third and fourth are noteworthy in that they accentuate a deep expression of feeling

in the words ending each line thus: Et nos amours, L'amour s' en y^, Ni temps passe. The absence of a rhyming connection to the

other lines makes these short phrases even more noticeable.

The first stanza is complex since one has difficulty in

establishing whether it is the loves that flow down the river,

loves that the poet would rather not remember, or whether it is

the joy that always follows pain.9 The lack of punctuation is a

step in Apollinaire's determination to remove the barrier between

sweet reason and music and to force the eye and even the voice to

follow the onward flow of music, even if in the process some

degree of comprehension is lost.10

The imagery is further developed in the second stanza, while

the river's current flows under the bridge, the wave of glances

streams beneath the bridge made by the lovers' arms but just what

the glances are directed to and what the love that the heart

feels is, are left to the reader's imagination.11

The third stanza seems to indicate acceptance of the fact

that the poet-hero has lost his love. The phrase "love slips by"

is repeated twice. The absence of love seems to prolong the day

for him and yet he is shaken by the pangs of useless hope. 190

The final stanza confirms the loneliness of the poet as the days and weeks roll on like the changeless river and he realises that he cannot restore his love nor regain the days gone by.

"Le Pont Mirabeau" more than any other poem shows how the poet's images seem to float forever on water. The sea, the ships that sailed on it, the fishes that lived in it, the streams, the the rivers, the reflective pools, the beckoning sirens and water sprites all had a place in his poetry. Water unlike human beings cannot dry up permanently, in this respect it is like time which continues to flow regardless of man's feeble efforts to arrest it. Dr. Isaac Watts who composed the following lines nearly two hundred years before Apollinaire 'wrote "Le Pont Mirabeau" expressed this theme perfectly:12

Time, like, an ever-rolling stream,

Bears all its sons away;

They fly forgotten, as a dream

Dies at the opening day.

Apollinaire acknowledges the fact that the stream of time/ in due course, will take all his memories, particularly of his former loves, down to the river and thence to the sea, but he lives on in hope, the hope that one day he will find a love that is permanent and will realise his ambition to write poetry that will not fly forgotten, as a dream.

It is a tragic fact that Apollinaire never had an enduring

love nor did he have the trait of stability that would make such

a love possible.

The poem laments the passing of love, as it flows away down 191 the river of time with water providing the imagery. It could be said that "Le Pont Mirabeau is Apollinaire's "Water Music".

"MARIE" (P.O.,81-1911)

Apollinaire, when under the stress of violent emotion, tended to revert to the regular forms of poetry with which he was familiar. This is particularly true of the poems which were inspired by Marie Laurencin, "Le Pont Mirabeau", "Marie" and

"Cors de chasse" which reflect the progressive deterioration of his relationship with her. Rather than the self centred free verse poems, these three seem to show in their composition an acceptance of the unhappy situation the poet was faced with.

There is, in "Marie", a continuation of the theme of flowing water and of the passage of time, so noticeable in "Le Pont

Mirabeau".

Even though Apollinaire's melancholy was relatively low key, he did admit in a letter to Madeleine Pages dated July 30th 1915 that of all the poems commemorating his heart-rending partings, he thought "Marie" was the most harrowing of all.13

The poem is made up of octosyllabic quintils, a form with which Apollinaire was very much at home, he was able to move in it from the staccato rhythm of a peasant dance to an elegiac melody. When the poet wished to stress his own feelings he used the alexandrine, an example of this is to be found in the very

lovely second verse.

The musicality of this poem is striking, it is achieved by

rhyming long drawn out sounds such as peine - semaine, sais-je - 192 n'ai-je, moutonne - automne. and judicious repetition of some of these sounds which seem to hang in the air after they have been uttered.

Apollinaire has achieved a clever effect in the first quintil by matching the remembered rhythm of the "Maclotte", the

Walloon peasant dance with the tap, tap, tapping sound of the skipping rope that Marie liked to use. Apollinaire remembered his early romance with Maria Dubois, the dancer of the Maclotte, in the confused state of mind brought on by the departure of Marie.

The masks in the second stanza refer to Marie Laurencin's paintings one of which hung in the poet's bedroom, but

Apollinaire remembered that he had written the alexandrine in an old note book dating from the time he was in Stavelot, it suited his mood perfectly and lends a particularly personal touch. His love is no longer a creature of flesh and blood, it has become a shadow, a face in a painting. Just as the lively dance of the first verse has turned into barely heard music from far away.

The third quintil also reaches into the past and describes a scene visible from his bedroom window in the Rhineland, as the poet sadly sings of the ever-changing loves that steal his heart, rather than raging about his misfortune. He even permits himself to voice an element of doubt about future loves; thereby introducing an element of time.

The last quintil but one describes Marie's hair which had a close curl due to her Mulatto ancestry. The image of autumn leaves, fallen on the ground, a favourite of Apollinaire's, is used once again to describe his erstwhile lover's hands. 193

The ever-flowing river that will never dry up is compared to the poet's continuing heartbreak, ,as he wonders if it will ever end.

We are indeed fortunate to be able to hear Apollinaire's voice reading this small gem of a poem, he made a recording of it in May of 1914.

"CORS DE CHASSE" (O.P.,148-1912)

This short poem in the "Marie" series, the last before

"Zone", was preceded by "Le Pont Mirabeau" and "Marie". It consists of two octosyllabic quintils and a two-line verse. It reflects the poet's realisation that he had once again lost in the battle of love. The poet's mood is reflective rather than bellicose or self-pitying. Margaret Davies has compared his previous poems with this little gem as changing from a gushing geyser to one shining raindrop.14

Marie-Jeanne Durry has studied this poem in a very thorough manner and what follows is in large measure a capsule version of her essay, which as befits her experience as a poetess in her own right, is written in a clear and beautiful style.15

A rapid first reading might induce one to assume that the poem's title and the exquisite last lines form the frame work on which the rest of the poem was built. This is an incorrect understanding as will be seen from the following comments.

The poem's majestic beginning which calls to mind the well- known lines from "La Chanson du Mal-Aime":

Moi qui sais des lais pour les reines 194 is on an anecdotal plane. The story is not a mere dramatic play full of maudlin sentiment and bombast, it is a tragedy in which the protagonist wears a mask which permits of no gesticulation, no disorder of words or attitudes. The story has a tyrannical fatality, there is nothing in it that would weaken the sad story of the end of a love. The action in this first stanza is static, but

Apollinaire's quicksilver mind starts the train of memory. He thinks of another lost love, to wit Annie Playden, and by a further association of ideas, of Thomas De Quincey who was looked after by

Anne, a girl of the streets, when he was alone in London in 1802.

It is probable that Apollinaire tried smoking opium at this stage of his life as a means of combatting his depression. In any event the issue of Les Soirees da Paris that appeared the month before

"Cors de Chasse" was published, had two essays on the subject of opium addiction and L'Tntransigeant had articles and pictures about the drug in April and May 1912, Apollinaire was a contributor to both journals. The motion continues as De Quincey makes his way to the sheltering Anne, dreaming all the while.

Apollinaire sings of the flow of memories that he will turn to ever more frequently.

The poet can now contemplate his own past, he disassociates himself from ephemeral things to better isolate his memories to which he will return as often as need be.

The memories can now be compared to the sound of hunting horns whose first clarion calls becoome more and more attenuated

as the wind bears them away. The imagery of these last two lines

is quite superb. One can feel the reverberations of the 195 huntsman's call and be dazzled by the sight of the bright copper of the horn.

From a stylistic point of view the poem is knit together by the recurring "on" sound, we can hear it as it moves from the second line to the very last: - tyran -> indifferent -> revant —

-> souvent -> vent, with the words themselves reflecting the changing mood. The curious assonance of "chaste" and "passe" is due to the lines 6 and 7 having been "cut" from an early draft of

"La Chanson du Mal-Aime" and "pasted" into "Cors de chasse", thereby disturbing the regularity of rhyme that distinguishes this poem. The hunting horn theme was not exclusive to

Apollinaire, it was used by Alfred de Vigny in his "Le Cor", by

Baudelaire, by Verlaine and by Jules Laforgue. Apollinaire even used it in an otherwise undistinguished bit of doggerel that was probably written during his school-days, "Un son de cor" (O.P.p.

555). However the link between remembrance and the sound of the horn as established by Apollinaire had only one model,

Baudelaire's "Cygne" and even this did not record the sound dying in the wind.

Ainsi dans la foret ou mon esprit s'exile

Un vieux Souvenir sonne au plein souffle du cor.

The combination of different objects instead of connecting similar ones is emblematic of modernity; thus the insubstantial, the remembrance, lends its lack of substance to the tangible object, the horn, which in turn displays the former in a way that one can almost feel, if not the horn itself, then the music that flows from it.16 196

It is a tenet of Symbolist poetry that the image should act by multiple suggestion, hence the question arises, does the word

"dont" in the last line refer to the sound or the memory? If it is memory, then we have the extraordinary image of the tumultuous sound of our recollections produced by the agency of a memory that is nearly lost on the wind, a memory that is mute.17

Discontinuity is evidenced by the sudden jump from tyrants to Thomas de Quincey, the immobile image is replaced by a theme of wandering through the past. This break and the surprising irruption of the hunting horn at the end of the poem belies a ground bass of poetic and musical inspiration that sounds throughout the poem on the theme of the love-lorn poet.

Apollinaire was very well aware that the human being possessed neither unity nor continuity. His achievement was to convert the psychological discontinuity inherent in all of us into a literary discontinuity. The poet was aware of a logical non-connection within one's self; he did not wish to weave with a thread that was not within us, in fact he breaks the thread. Apollinaire was a modern man of the times, a man of diversity and discontinuity, he was aware that as a modern poet, he was like a maker of mosaics, joining pieces that were not made for each other together.18

The life that has been irreparably lost, is thanks to memory still able to move and to speak to us and even if no motion or sound were present, the world of emptiness and nullity would still engender memories.19

The poem's final lines evoke memories that encompass the 197 world and the inner forest of the self, as one draws breath for an instant on the unpronounced "e" of the word "chasse" and hears the dying notes of the horn.20

The poem is somewhat discontinuous but this is largely due to the lightning speed with which images are created in the poet's mind. The poet however finds time to contemplate the past.

As in "Le Pont Mirabeau" the musicality attracts attention.

"ZONE" (O.P.,39-1912)

There are many facets to this poem. It has been described rightly as a "poeme-promenade". It provides evidence of a re• occurrence of the bipolar mental problem brought on by the loss of Annie. In this instance it was the break up with Marie

Laurencin. It is a "poeme de fin d'amour" like those of 1903-

1904.

The poet's self is the principal theme, with "je" and "tu" very noticeable, Richard Stamelman has correctly identified this as the self seen from two perspectives, one from inside the self and the other from outside; the fragmentation process involves the projection of the self on to an exterior object for example:21

C'est un tableau pendu dans un sombre musee

Et quelquefois tu vas le regarder de pres

A further example of the "je"/"tu" alternance is in the lines: 198

Tu as fait de douloureux et de joyeux voyages

Avant de t'apercevoir du mensonge et de l'age

Tu as souffert de 1'amour a vingt et a trente ans

J'ai vecu comme un fou et j'ai perdu mon temps

Tu n'oses plus regarder tes mains et a tous moments

je voudrais sangloter

Sur toi sur celle que j'aime sur tout ce qui t'a

epouvante.

The "je" - "tu" combination is simultaneous, neither pronoun is identifiable with any given period in the poet's life. Its use is an innovation peculiar to Apollinaire and he has used it with telling effect.22

There is a striking separation of the poem into two separate sequences, lines 1-70 reflect a joyous mood while the remaining lines indicate a gradual sinking and despairing note until the poet plumbs the very bottom. Apollinaire when rejected in love had an understandable urge to consort with women who were more generous with the physical aspects of love, this was noticeable

just after the "Annie" period and is very evident in 1912 also.

The loss of Marie and the terrible blow to his self esteem resulting from his being arrested on an unproven charge of complicity in the theft of the Mona Lisa in the year before,

spurred the poet into sexual adventures that were readily

available.

Unlike the early long poems which featured the poet

searching for an elusive and unattainable object, a sort of Holy

Grail, "Zone" has no definite target. Apollinaire in the subject 199 poem and in "Le Voyageur" wished to break away from the mold of pseudo-allegorical poems, the term invented by S.I. Lockerbie,23 which was a feature of Symbolism, and a form which did not accord with the modern world Apollinaire chose to portray.

Apollinaire was fascinated by the Cinema which, after the crude images of the Bioscope (Biographe in French), had a period of twenty-five years to develop several techniques, such as the use of flash-backs, long shots, close-ups, accelerated motion, the mirror image and the ability to run the film through the projector backwards and forwards. Apollinaire and Andre Billy tried their hands at writing a film script, in 1917 "La

Brehatine", for a producer by the name of Sandberg, so it is quite possible that the- poet was in touch with the film industry even before the Great War, and noted some of the tricks of the trade. A cinematic analysis of several lines of Zone was done by

Richard Stamelman and this will be commented on further when the lines are reached in the present analysis.

The poem's first line seems to reflect that what follows is to be a celebration of the break-away modern world and a mournful chant of despair. Line 2 is a curious blend of the pastoral theme, favoured by the poets of old and the modern, the Eiffel tower affected many writers and painters during "La belle epoque", including Apollinaire's friend Robert Delaunay.

Line 5 reflects the eye for detail that is an endearing aspect of Apollinaire's personality. Even ten years after the poet's death, automobile coachwork was based on the horse-drawn carriages that preceded the motor car. 200

The obscurity of the references to religion being modern in lines 6-9 has been illuminated by Richard Stamelman, he links the quest for the superhuman, a religious search in itself, with the the desire of modern man to pass the same limits with his latest inventions. Pope Pius X, a die-hard conservative, did see fit to bless the winner of the Paris-Rome air race in 1911 and the

Church has responded, albeit slowly, to the changing needs of

Christians.24 However Apollinaire cannot bring himself to be stared at by the Saints in the stained glass windows, having lost his faith owing to the woeful experiences he has undergone. Now and again he has a child-like wish to participate and sing the praises of Christ, as will be seen in lines 25 to 41.

Advertising slogans on posters and in catalogues often have something poetic about them, Apollinaire even wrote a commercial for "Walk- Over" shoes (0.P.p.733), so the poet explains in lines

11-14 that poetry can be found in the streets, unlike prose which belongs to the press and cheap paperbacks. A further example of

Apollinaire's sharp perception of every-day things around him.

Paris, Apollinaire's beloved city gleams in the sunlight and the jangle of the throngs in the street in the industrial area in the northern portion of the 17th Arrondissement fills him with delight as he gazes at the shop signs and posters.

The mood changes swiftly as the poet remembers his bitter• sweet boyhood, an example of the fade-out,fade-in cinematic technique. However the onward march of the poem as a whole is not

affected. It is this continuous thread that binds the multiple

discontinous elements together. The darkened chapel, lit only by 201 the flickering amethyst-coloured vigil light which illuminates the statue of a Christ with red hair at whose feet two truant little boys are praying is surely one of Apollinaire's most beautiful images. Apollinaire sought and obtained relief when the present world made him distraught by remembering such episodes that occurred in the past. This passage loses nothing by being

Symbolist since the amethyst colour anticipates the setting sun image at the very end of the poem. The flaming glory of the

Christ is likened to the Sun as it passes through the heavens day after day, with the week-end foreshortened into the brief space of the night. The passage is not only remarkable for its imagery, it also, in line 31, provides evidence of Apollinaire's ear for melody. Lines 33 to 39 are reminiscent of the type of litany a child would recite when brought up in a strict religious environment, but there is a surrealist element of surprise when the final "C'est" identification compares Christ to an aviator who holds the world record for attained height, and the reader parachutes unexpectedly into the modern world.

Once again the poet returns to the present as he gazes at the sky with the birds and the occasional aeroplane flying above him; the birds ascending remind the poet of an old painting he had seen in the museum in Cologne where Christ was depicted as

flying through the air on a cross equipped with wings. The lowly

devils, earth-bound, like the poet himself can take no part in

such miracles but they cannot resist mischievous comments such as

the blatant pun in line 47 and the comparison to Simon Magus.

The reunion in the sky of Christ Himself then, the humans, 202 the prophets, the gods and the philosophers of the past for whom flying held no terrors, then the birds from all over the world including the mysterious ones from China and the sirens from the dangerous straits, has as its purpose the welcome of the winged host to the latest flier to join their ranks.

This pleasant and fanciful interlude ends suddenly as the poet-hero continues his solitary walk and the slow descent into his personal hell begins. Lines 71 to 80 depict Apollinaire in the depression cycle of the bipolar affliction that seems to be triggered by the loss of a loved one. In a poignant passage he wishes he lived in days gone by so that he could enter a monastery and thus escape from the cruel world which is strangling him as the unfeeling bellowing buses pass him by. But, the poet is Apollinaire and he has learned to laugh at his misfortunes even if the laughter crackles like the flames of hell as he looks at himself as if in a mirror. It is worth noting that the entire passage is in .the second person.

The poet's thoughts now turn to women in general, it seems to him that they are so often unreachable owing to their physical difference from men. Menstruation seems to provoke a deep seated misogyny. The poet dreams while wideawake of his Marie and the other Marie, The Virgin. The sacred blood that drowns him cannot

cure him since he suffers from the shameful and incurable disease

called love.25 The colour red, continuously identified with blood, has a special significance for Apollinaire, a treasured

eiderdown is a faded red and for him, the rays of the setting sun

are never orange or pink, they are always blood-red. 203

The tension built up in the last nine lines now eases up as the dark mood lifts for. a few moments with the joyous remembrance of a boating expedition with his friends of the old days on the

Riviera; but he remembers the darker side also with their sighting a frightful octopus swimming beside the fish which the poet, like the early Christians, identified with the Saviour. The greek word ichthus, meaning fish, was a coded rendering for

"Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour". Scared, he also recalls seeing his own likeness in a heavily veined agate stone image of a dead king on display at St Vitus's church in Prague which saddens him almost to death. He notices a live beetle in the heart of a rose, his favourite flower. Everything has gone awry, even the clock in the Jewish quarter has hands that go backwards, just as he himself creeps backward through his life and recalls the visits he paid to Marseilles, Koblenz, Rome, Amsterdam and

Gouda some years before, where at least he was able to experience some calm. Apollinaire has succeeded in investing lines 89 to 112 with much pathos and feeling on a strictly personal note. The recital of place names is a fair example of Apollinaire's early experiments in simultaneity as applied to poetry.

The rapid alternance between short lived joy and darkest despair continues when the poet remembers that frightful week in

September when he was arrested and jailed for a crime he did not commit. Apollinaire sums up in six lines (115-120) the series of flashbacks that the poem has largely consisted of up to this point, the record is a mix of sadness and joy overlaid with despair made up of self deprecation, shame, disenchantment, 204 disillusion, terror, self pity and self disgust.26 The poet cannot even look at his wrists since they remind him of the manacles he had to wear and he weeps on account of his misery and the loss of his dearly loved Marie.

Apollinaire's generous spirit now takes over as he describes the poor emigrants in the Gare St Lazare, they were mostly

Jewish, bound for the Americas. Their blood red eiderdown reminds him of his own red coverlet given to him many years previously by his mother when they too were immigrants; its colour is contrasted with the consumptive pallor of the Jewesses devoid of sexuality on account of the wigs they had to wear to cover their most attractive feature, their hair. Yet another indication of

Apollinaire's painstaking attention to detail. The old quilt is more than a covering,it is a family keepsake, a reminder of their homeland and a stout bulwark against the vicissitudes of living in a chilly foreign land. The reality of its warmth is tied in with its symbolic meaning.

The poet's life is approaching its lowest ebb as he drinks a cup of coffee in a filthy bar and moves on to a half empty restaurant whose' only occupants, at this late hour, are prostitutes, he feels sorry for them since they too and their former lovers must have had worries. He singles out one whose chapped hands are an indication of the rough life of a whore who has to stand outside to attract customers. Doubtless Apollinaire was aware that the word "gerce" is slang for a prostitute in addition to its regular meaning of cracked chapped skin. In the

early draft intended for the "Annee republicaine" collection, which was the precursor of "Zone" as we know it, the lines which corresponded to 135 -143 had far more sordid details which

Apollinaire was wise enough to delete, the poet was an excellent editor of his own works which often allowed him to cover tracks which he felt were too personal for public use.

Lines 14 6 and 147 signal the dawn in comparing the departure of the night with a farewell to the lovely mulatto girl who was

Marie Laurencin and to another girl of the Antilles, Ferdine, the heroine of a pornographic novel that must have suited his depressed mood which seemed to crave sexual stimulation. He sought relief in the burning draughts of brandy, that well known panacea for misery.

The poet, abandoned by all that he held dear, including

Christianity, crawls home to sleep surrounded by alien gods who might yet give him a chance to hope for happier days. Farewell, farewell, the poet sighs while the dawning Sun streaks the sky blood red as it becomes severed from the horizon.

Of the several exegesists of this poem, Philippe Renaud has probably come closest to expressing Apollinaire's own need to write "Zone" in his excellent summation:27

La poesie de notre siecle est nee de la voix d'un homme

egare dans la nuit et prive du fil d'Ariane qui

l'aurait ramene a la lumiere. On peut supposer que pour

avoir une identite il est necessaire d'accepter le

regard et le jugement d'autrui; peut-etre y faut-il

aussi l'oeil de Dieu. La quete d'Apollinaire par lui-

meme est nocturne et solitaire; c'est une etreinte 206

sans fin ou il est a la fois l'homme et l'ange. II est

a lui seul tous les personnages du drame du labyrinthe

et ie labyrinthe lui-meme. Ce drame fabuleux se situe,

assez naturellement, a mi-chemin entre Rimbaud et le

surrealisme d'une part, la mythologie et la

psychanalyse d'autre part.

This long' and important poem is loaded with aspects of

Apollinaire's personality. There is evidence of the loss of his childhood faith but this is balanced by respect for Christ as a man. Generosity towards others is noticeable particularly since so much of Apollinaire's other poetry is self centred. There is a complex alternance between "Je" and "Tu" and evidence of that bothersome bipolar disorder. Apollinaire makes no bones about being in the company of prostitutes but a certain squeamishness made him expunge graphic lines from the preliminary draft.

Despite his outgoing nature he was at heart a very private person. He still retains the priceless gift of being able to laugh at himself, but has an inordinate fear of bad omens. A modernist and admirer of mechanical and scientific progress he used cinematic techniques such as flash-backs to provide emphasis when required and finally he had an eye for all the minutiae of every day life and created poetic images from his detailed observations. The overall picture is a gloomy one as a lonely and forsaken man slowly takes the road back to his home. NOTES: CHAPTER 9

1 Marie-Jeanne Durry, Guillaume Apollinaire XA1cools', 3

(Paris: S.E.D.E.S., 1964) 148.

2 Marie-Jeanne Durry, 3, 149-150.

3 Francis Ambriere, "Quatre ebauches d'Apollinaire, " Le.

Mercure de France 15 fevrier 1934: 185.

4 Francis Ambriere, 185-187.

5 Philippe Renaud, Lecture d'Apol1inaire (Lausanne: L'Age d'Homme 1969) 109.

6 Anne Hyde Greet, trans. vAlcools', Guillaume Apollinaire

(Berkeley: Univ. of California P. 1965) 279.

7 Mario Roques, "Guillaume Apollinaire et les vieilles chansons", La Revue des Deux Mondes, 15 Janvier 1948: 320.

8 Anne Hyde Greet, 214.

9 Anne Hyde Greet, 214.

10 Marie-Jeanne Durry, 3, 219.

11 Marie-Jeanne Durry, 2, 170.

12 Dr. Isaac Watts (1674-1748), Hymn 379, "0 God, our help

in ages past" (1719) verse 5. 208

13 Guillaume Apollinaire, Tendre comme le souvenir

(Paris: Gallimard, 1952) 70.

14 Margaret Davies, Apol1i nai re (Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd,

1964) 192.

15 Marie-Jeanne Durry, 2, 156-169.

16 Marie-Jeanne Durry, 2, 160.

17 Marie-Jeanne Durry, 2, 160-161.

18 Marie-Jeanne Durry, 2, 167 & 169.

19 Marie-Jeanne Durry, 2, 161.

20 Marie-Jeanne Durry, 2, 161.

21 Richard Stamelman, The Drama of self in Guillaume

Apol1inaire's 'Alcools' (Chapel Hill: Univ. of North Carolina P.,

1976) 50-51.

22 Philippe Renaud, 164.

23 S.I. Lockerbie, "'Alcools' et le Symbolisme," Guillaume

Apollinaire, 2, La Revue des lettres modernes 85-89 (1963): 7.

24 R.H. Stamelman, 135.

25 Marie-Jeanne Durry, 1, 292.

26 R.H. Stamelman, 156.

27 Philippe Renaud, 164. 209

CONCLUSION

The various aspects of Apollinaire's personality that have been uncovered as a result of the analysis of his poems have been grouped into four main divisions:

1. General philosophical attitudes.

Myth; The Occult; Religion; Death, Premonitions of

Death, and the Fear of the Unknown.

2. Personality as such

Dreams, Memory, and The Past; Loneliness; Melancholy;

Bipolar Disorder; Personification; Participation; Role

Reversal; Shadows.

3. Outward Way of Life

(a) Attitude toward the Physical World: Fire, Water,

the Stellar Universe, the Sun and the Moon.

(b) Attitude towards others: Cruelty; Mystification;

Sexuality; Women; Annie Playden.

(c) The Joys of the Table.

(d) Powers of observation.

(e) Love of Paris. 210

4. Literary and arr.istin r.harantsrisrirs.

Erudition; The Dance and the Theatre; Music; Literary

Puns; the method of assembling a poem; the Poet's Role;

identification with Mythological and Historical

Figures.

Each of the four divisions will contain introductory remarks which will be followed in turn by the subdivisions set out above.

Each subdivision will feature short sentences dealing with each of the aspects.

GENERAL PHTLOSOPHTCAT, ATTITUDES

Apollinaire was, in a sense, a twentieth century troubador with the difference that he sang, not the lays handed down from generation to generation but intensely personal songs which stemmed from his preoccupation with metaphysical matters. He believed that the ancient heroes of the past were reincarnated in his own person. He felt that there was an unseen hand which guided his progress in the modern world he lived in. Religious belief did not explain or alleviate the pain he experienced. He seemed to sense that he had but little time in which to make his mark in the world.

Legend and Myth

Apollinaire was fascinated with myth, his knowledge was vast: the Biblical, the Hindu, the Greco-Roman, and the stories of the mad kings of Bavaria all figure in "La Chanson du Mal-

Aime. Early Christian myth and Arthurian Legend are the sources of "L'Ermite" and "Merlin et la vieille femme." The lore of the 211

Rhineland is a feature of many of his poems of 1901-1902. Even fairy stories attracted his attention, "The Blue Bird" in "La

Tzigane"

He read deeply, sometimes delving into the earliest accounts. He wrote a poem based on Arthurian legend when he was only 16 years of age!

The Occult

Apollinaire was born under the sign of Virgo. He firmly believed in astrology and palmistry, witness "Les Fiangailles" and "La Tzigane". In "Le Brasier" he indicated that trees had oracular powers. The Tarot had a special fascination for him and

"Crepuscule" shows this.

Apollinaire had a belief that poets were endowed with a gift of prophecy, this is very apparent in "Onirocritique", "Le

Brasier" and "Merlin et la vieille femme".

He was scared of bad omens such as the jellyfish swimming in a sunlit sea or his likeness on an agate wall-plaque in Prague; these two examples occur in "Zone".

Attitude towards religion

The Marianist fathers in Nice instilled a fair amount of biblical knowledge and gave young Guillaume a very full exposure to the rites of the Catholic church, "L'Ermite and "Lecture" prove this. There was a particular emphasis on the cult of the

Virgin Mary, apparent in "A La Sante" and "Le Printemps" and the lives of the Saints, in "Le Brasier" and "Zone". This Christian training was supplemented by much information on Jewish theology by the Molinas. Apollinaire drew on this in "La Synagogue". In 212 addition Apollinaire delved into the history of several heresies.

The misfortunes the poet underwent caused him to question his faith soon after he had passed from under the wing of the religious fathers, as is indicated in "L'Ermite" and "Le Larron".

This had the result of his treating religious matters often quite irreverently, one can see examples of this in "Le DQme de

Cologne" and "La Vierge a la fleur d'haricot de Cologne".

Religious faith did return when disaster occurred and the Virgin

Mary was invoked in "A La Sante". Apollinaire did not really accept Christ as the Son of God but had enormous respect for him as a man.

Death, premonitions of death, and the fear of the unknown

Apollinaire had a real fear of death which trait remained with him from his early days ("Aurore d'hiver", and "Merlin et la vieille femme"), during the Rhineland year, ("La Maison des

Morts") right up to 1911 ("A La Sante") and beyond. In his poem

"Vendemiaire" he expressed the fear that once he had died his work would be forgotten. He equated the loss of love with death in "La Blanche Neige" and "Palais", and sad memories with dead souls in "La Chanson du Mal-Aime" and "Le Voyageur". In this last poem it is evident that the poet's gift for prophecy meant that he had premonitions of death. The poet feared the unknown almost as much as death, this shows up in "La Tzigane".

THE PERSONALITY AS SUCH

This division is concerned with more personal matters. In other words the conscious and subconscious aspects of the Apollinarian Self. In some cases Apollinaire seemed to recognize

the inner forces that drove him, for example, he realised that he

had a recurring mild form of mental disorder. He had disordered

and morbid dreams. He dreaded loneliness, for him it was a form

of death. He hid his melancholy under an outward show of

nonchalance. He was prone to take on the personality of the

protagonist in a given poem or to create a personality out of an

abstract conception. He went even further and became an active

participant in the narrative motion of some of his poetry. He

created living symbols of what he knew were only shadows.

Dreams, memory, and the past

Apollinaire, the poet, drew heavily on dreams when writing

"Cortege and "Palais"; on recollection of past events for "Mai",

"Merlin et la vieille femme", and "Cors de chasse"; and on the

artistic legacy of the past as in "Cortege" for inspiration.

Sometimes, when the memory of past events was too painful he made

strenuous efforts to forget. "Les Fiancailles", "L'Emigrant de

Landor Road" and "Palais" are noteworthy in this respect.

T.onel i ness

For someone as out-going as Apollinaire was, it is

surprising how strongly evident this trait is in his psycho•

logical make-up; it persisted long after he had been accepted

into literary society. Loneliness during the early years, in Paris

is not surprising, since he had few friends at that time,

particularly female friends, "L'Ermite" is a good indication of

this. "Le Voyageur" showed that loneliness after the loss of a

friend's company affected him very strongly. 214

Melancholy and Morbidity

Like. many slightly psychotic individuals Apollinaire seemed to derive a degree of pleasure and inspiration out of sadness.

Autumn depressed him since it was followed by what is so aptly called the "Dead of Winter", he made this clear in "Automne".

Apollinaire appears to have had morbid dreams, he was subject to morbid thoughts when upset, aparticularly as a young man.

("Lecture"). Even when celebrating, in verse, the wedding of his dear friend Andre Salmon he .conjures up a morbid image of a rectangular cloth-covered table as a coffin. For Apollinaire, melancholy was persistent like the river's continual flow in "Le

Pont Mirabeau".

Bipolar Disorder

As early as 1899 Apollinaire realised that life would be full of ups and downs. In "Le Larron" he foresaw that he would be subject to the very real disease known as Bipolar Disorder. There is evidence that this problem arose every time he was frustrated in love but diminished when amatory affairs were running relatively smoothly.

The first major onset occurred in 1902/3 at the end of his romance with Annie. A clinical description of this state is contained in the analysis of "Le Printemps". It is probable that

Apollinaire inherited the disease from his mother. ("La Porte".)

The problem persisted and became more aggravated during the year

in the Rhineland, as is evident in "Nuit Rhenane", until

Apollinaire worked it out of his system by writing poems such as

"L'Emigrant de Landor Road", "La Chanson du Mal-Aime", wherein he 215 acknowledged that he had the disease, even though he did not name it, "Un Soir", and . "Lul de Faltenin". The act of writing such poetry seemed to lift the weight of misery that brought on the disease/ it was a process similar to that of exorcising a devil.

A second attack was brought on by the rupture with Marie

Laurencin and the symptoms are to be found in "A la Sante", "Le

Voyageur", and "Zone"

Personification

Whereas the term role reversal applies to the poet acquiring the personality of the person described, personification as used here is the creating of a person to represent a quality. In "La

Chanson du Mal-Aime" the poet has created a street-wise lout to show the evil thoughts that Apollinaire was harbouring and a sluttish, drunken old woman to represent false love. The Phoenix becomes the personification of love reborn. Apollinaire has brought to life a group of chattering women in "Les Femmes" and given us a picture of a murderous robber in "Schinderhannes".

The poet as a participant

Apollinaire sometimes moved the poet from his role as a recorder-narrator into that of a participant in the action. After listening to a boatman's song in "Nuit Rhenane" he insists on summoning the girls who are the subject of the song. After recording the scene in a country graveyard in "Rhenane d'Automne" he moves in and relates what he sees to his personal experience, fallen leaves become the hands of lovers that have passed on.

Role reversal

This term is used to record instances where the poet has 216 taken on a role other than the one apparent from a casual reading of a poem. In a poem such as "1/Emigrant de Landor Road" it is the poet, not Annie, who is leaving and the departure is not from

England but rather from his role as Annie's lover. Role reversal allows the poet to acquire the personality of the individual described in the poem. In "Le Printemps" and "La Clef"

Apollinaire describes lovelorn young girls searching this way and that for love that has gone, it is of course the poet who is trying to rediscover the missing romance. The poet describes himself as a footsore widow who is wandering here and there in her search for love ("La Dame"); Apollinaire becomes a sailor

longing for a safe return home ("Lui de Faltenin"); a painter in

love with his model ("La Vierge a la fleur d'haricot"); and a

girl, the butt of the village gossips because she had been caught

in the act of love ("Les Cloches"). In "Palais" the poet

identifies himself with Henry II of England and Annie with his mistress Rosamund Clifford. He transmutes himself into the beautiful sorceress "Loreley" whose lover is leaving her to go to

a far country.

Obsession with shadows

Apollinaire created some of his best imagery in using the

concept of the shadow. In "La Maison des morts" resurrected

corpses see their past lives in their shadows. The recollection

of a lost love follows the poet wherever he goes like a shadow in

"Signe". 217

OUTS TDK INFLUENCES ON THE POET'S WAY OF T.TFF.

Gaston Bachelard has drawn attention to the phenomena of Fire and Water1 and their effect on the subconscious. A poet as sensitive as Apollinaire, could not fail to be affected.

Apollinaire, from his earliest days, was inspired by contemplation of the Sun in particular and to a much lesser extent the Moon. However it was the immensity of the Starry

Universe, and the movement that he detected in it, that caught his attention most forcibly.

It would appear that the recital of the relationship that

Apollinaire had with his fellow men and women that is traceable to his poetry provides a false picture of the man as he really was. He could be very friendly and trusting, if not always trust• worthy. It is a pity therefore that the negative aspects such as cruelty, sexuality, denigration of women and his ambivalent treatment of Annie Playden are so evident in his works.

If the long-lasting taste for cryptic crosswords had started in Apollinaire's lifetime, he would have been a master of the art. His contemporaries were - truly bewildered by Apollinaire's mystification, and yet there is no evidence at all that any of them made any effort to ask the poet for an explanation of the complexities of say the "Sept Epees" interlude in "La Chanson du

Mal-Aime" which continue to tax some of the brightest of the many exegesists of Apollinaire's works.

A major facet of Apollinaire's personality was his ability to store and later recover minor little details. It is known that he used note books when he was a young man, but he probably gave 218 up using them in his late twenties and yet the multiple vignettes which enrich his poetry continue to entrance his readers.

Finally like so many foreigners he had an abiding love for

Paris, "La ville lumiere", the city that shone so brightly during the first dozen years of the new century which have been rightly named "La Belle Epoque".

Fire. Water, the Solar and the Stellar Systems

Fire according to Northrop Frye is linked by analogy and identity with other aspects of experience, it is analogous to the internal heat we feel as warmblooded animals; its sparks are analogous to seeds, the units of life, its flickering movement is analogous to vitality; its flames are phallic symbols; its transforming power is analogous to purgation.2 Apollinaire knew this and was able to express himself accordingly in his poetry, especially in "Le Brasier".

Fire plays a major role in Apollinaire's imagery, he adored it, he saw it as a purifier. In "Le Brasier" and "Les

Fiancailles" he admired the flickering tongues of flames that came out of a sorceress's eyes in "La Loreley". He saw flames in a glass of wine because the presence of bubbles gave it a flickering light, in "Nuit Rhenane".

As regards water, Apollinaire would appear to have gone a little further than Gaston Bachelard did in his philosophical work on the subject, since he has come up with two concepts that seemed to have been overlooked by the latter. First, in "Le

Brasier" he regarded water as a tempering agent, after his hands, the tools of his trade, had passed through the furnace. Second 219 in "Le Pont Mirabeau" he noted the unchanging nature and permanence of water flowing down a river, and likened it to time.

The poetry has countless examples of the other features of water that have been noted by Bachelard; Its reflective qualities, its capacity to transmit sound, its identification with the female rather than the male; finally its musicality.3

The Sun and its identification with Phoebus Apollo are dealt with in a later note in these concluding remarks. Other aspects particularly the redness of the Setting Sun have have been noted in the analysis of poems such as "Palais" and "Zone". The Moon does not appear to have provided much inspiration apart from

"Clair de Lune".

The Stellar Universe is exceptionally rich in imagery. The refrain in "La Chanson du Mal-Aime", the bees in "Clair de Lune" the fading star-shine of the German winter in "Elegie". The new breed of poems written after 1908 also had their fair share of stellar images especially when the subject was love, "Les

Fiancailles", "Poeme lu au mariage d'Andre Salmon". The note of self-aggrandizement used a stellar analogy in "Lul de Faltenin".

Cruelty

There is ample evidence that Apollinaire could be quite cruel and rude if he wished. He was very disillusioned with

Annie; in "La Chanson du Mal-Aime" he called her an "Antipapesse and personified her false love in the shape of a sluttish old woman; Annie's eyes are likened to those of a Hun in "Palais".

The idyllic scene in "Dans le jardin d'Anna" was disturbed by a description of the act of breaking a cane across the back of a 220 peasant. A goose is plucked while still alive in "Automne malade"

When Apollinaire realised that Linda Molina was not about to respond to his overtures he wanted her to be beaten by sadists.

Mysti fi cat ion

The prime reason why friends and critics have labelled

Apollinaire as an arch-mystifier was quite apparent to the poet himself. More often than not it was because he did not wish to give too much away about himself or his relationships. He was quite secretive in "Merlin et la vieille femme", "La Tzigane",

"La Chanson du Mal-Aime", and "Cortege". "Zone" proves that the poet was a very painstaking editor of his own work. There was an element of shyness about him which shows up in "Mai". For one who could be very forthright in description and imagery, there was often a display of a circumspect attitude, if the situation called for it, as in "Les Diets d'amour a Linda".

Sexual Drives

Apollinaire could best be described as being over-sexed. The erotic urge was always there even if beneath the surface. He never doubted his capacity to captivate women, "Le Larron" and

"Le Brasier" prove this. However he was often in the company of prostitutes. "Rosemonde", "1909", and "Zone" make this clear.

Subjects normally considered taboo are brought out of the closet.

This aspect was to gain even greater importance during his relationships with Louise de Coligny-Chatillon and Madeleine

Pages. However his own personal details were often omitted or only hinted at out of his sense of squeamishness, self loathing, and mystification. Examples of this restraint are to be found in 221

"L'Ermite", "Lecture", and Lui de Faltenin. Apollinaire found sexual connotations even in inanimate objects such as the quintain, mentioned in "Les Fiancailles".

Attitude to women

Apollinaire seemed to be preoccupied with the difference between men and women. In his belief there was something dreadful about menstruation and female blood, he showed this in "Zone".

There was a subconscious fear of the female sex which can be detected in "Lecture" and "L'Ermite". Not surprisingly, after his experience with Annie, he did not trust women. In "La Chanson du

Mal-Aime" he displayed a belief that they were out to cheat him or even emasculate him.

Annie identified as the protagonist

Most of the poems where roles or personality are involved have to do with Apollinaire. He is surely one of the most self- centred of poets. An exception is the poem centred around Annie under the guise of Salome.

The joys of the table.

Apollinaire was particularly fond of good food, good wine and good company. "Mille Regrets" is a charming indication of this. He loved to frequent the little cafes where artists and writers met, and paints the scene with unerring brush strokes in

"Poeme lu au mariage d' Andre Salmon" and "Vendemiaire".

Observation and attention to detail

Apollinaire had acute powers of observation, he was able in a quick glance to distinguish details and record and store

impressions that any ordinary person would miss. "Le Voyageur" is 222 particularly rich in this respect. He noticed changes in ladies fashions in "1909" and changes in automobile coachwork in "Zone".

Although scenery per se did not affect Apollinaire he was able to create beautiful imagery in relating the scenery to the protagonist in the poem as in "Mai". The customers playing cards in an inn in Luxemburg are brought to life in "Le Voyageur". In

"Zone": Apollinaire detected the poetry contained in wall-poster advertisements; he related an old painting in Cologne depicting

Christ riding a large cross supported by wings to a modern aeroplane. Apollinaire noted everything about the prostitute

"Marizibill" working her beat in Cologne. The street scene in that city at Carnival time as described in "Le Dome de Cologne" is full of interesting detail. A visit to a columbarium .in Munich resulted in a word picture that told everything in just two stanzas, in "La Maison des morts".

Love of Paris

Apollinaire thought that his beloved Paris, especially during "La Belle Epoque" was the centre of the world. He sang its praises in "La Chanson du Mal-Aime" and "Vendemiaire". He knew the city well and never tired of walking over every mile of it and describing everything that took his fancy. He was truly "Le flaneur des deux rives", the stroller along the river that, according to "Le Brasier", was stapled to the town.

LTTERARY AND ARTTSTTC CHARACTERISTICS.

This division deals with Apollinaire's own techniques as a poet and his relationships with others involved in artistic 223 endeavours.

Apollinaire was a master of the art of splicing disparate lines and even whole stanzas from older poems into a draft of a new one. The resulting poem had all the cohesiveness of a work that had been written from scratch. Only a poet who had a relatively small stock of images from which to draw on could do this as successfully as Apollinaire.

If Apollinaire lacked the number of images available to other poets, he more than made up for it in his astounding and encyclopedic grasp of past history, of scientific developments, of artistic movements, of the world of the Occult and just about every manifestation of human knowledge that was available in the libraries of his time. He had a considerable library of his own and kept adding to it as he frequented the second hand bookstalls along the Seine. He could discourse on any subject and this was a reason for jealousy among contemporaries who lacked this

remarkable ability.

The poet's grasp of the French Language both ancient and modern was superb. Many archaic words have found their way into his poetry as well as neologisms of his own creation. A bye- product of this knowledge was his frequent use of puns which

often had the effect of heightening the musicality as well as

enlivening his poetry.

Apollinaire as a poet was almost invariably self-centred,

this dominant trait cannot be over emphasised. He asserted that

his inspiration proceeded from divine sources and that this gift

was unique. 224

In his role as a poet Apollinaire saw himself as a successor to the ancient gods who symbolised poetry and music as well as those who dominated the heavens.

Apollinaire enjoyed Music and the Dance and was regarded by many as one of the foremost art critics of his time.

Cut and Paste

This technical term, familiar to all newspapermen, has been used to describe Apollinaire's continual borrowing from prior poems, the "cut", and the insertion into a work that he was currently composing "the paste." It would be impossible at this distance from Apollinaire's times to find out what his filing system was; it certainly appears to have been extraordinarily efficient. The bulk of these borrowings have been grouped in one end note under the headings of "from" and "to".4

Erudition

Apollinaire's capacity to read and remember what interested him was quite prodigious: among the subjects studied were Botany,

("Les Colchiques"); Geography, ("Annie"); Astronomy ("Clair de

Lune"); Lexicography ("L'Ermite"); Arthurian Legend ("Triptyque de L'Homme"); and Religious trivia (Rhenane d'Automne").

The Dance and the Theatre

The Russian artist Larionov made some sketches of

Apollinaire and Serge Diaghilef watching a rehearsal of the

Russian Ballet. They both seem to be absorbed as they watched the

dancers going through their paces. Apollinaire wrote an

introduction for the ballet "Parade". He also made the Sun and

Morgane dance provocatively in "Merlin et la vieille femme". The 225 passage of time was likened to a round dance in "A La Sante". The theatre, particularly "La Commedia del Arte" commanded his attention. "Cr6puscule" and "Saltimbanques" are indicative of this.

Ear for Music

Whenever Apollinaire sat down to "compose" a poem he would hum a little tune, this provided the beat that- one associates with so much of his poetry. He believed that the musicality of a poem was even more important than coherence. "Le Pont Mirabeau"

is convincing proof of this. Apollinaire succeeded in converting the measured tread of a prisoner, in the cell above his, at "La

Sante" into music. The poet was fond of long drawn-out sounds in his poetry, the sound of the final syllable in many of his poems

seems to hang in the air long after it has been uttered, for example the "aine" or "ene" sounds in "Marie" or "La Chanson du

Mal-Aime".

A propensity to create puns

Apollinaire loved to create punning phrases, they served as

a kind of leaven to lighten the sometimes morbid images. Examples

are :Rosaire - Roseraie ("Le Dome de Cologne"); Laurier

Laurencin ("Les Fiangailles"); Raison - Raisin ("Vendemiaire");

Le Toussaint - Toussaint-Luca ("Rhenane d'Automne").

Apollinaire, the Poet.

Apollinaire believed that he existed to write poetry and

asserted this forcibly He believed, in "Fiancailles, that he had

God-like powers. As early as 1901, in "Les Diets d'amour a Linda"

he insisted that he had the ability to sing lays for queens. In 226 considering his role he asked himself in "Palais" whether his inspiration should be love or the Holy Spirit.

Although he was willing to experiment he always reverted to established forms of prosody when facing a crisis, "Marie" and "A

La Sante" indicate this tendency.

Identification with the gods of antiquity

Apollinaire was proud of his name with its direct connection to Apollo, the Sun God. He dreams of riding across the clouds in his golden chariot in "Le D6me de Cologne". In "Lul de Faltenin" he created complex imagery involving the Sun returning again after the night. Apollinaire in "Crepuscule" and "Saltimbanques"

identified himself with Mercury, the god of charlatans, he believed that he could assume various disguises and play different roles, he could be a Jester, Harlequin or a clown, even

if his heart was breaking. In "Le Dome de Cologne he saw himself as an incarnation of Hermes Trismegistus who invented writing, and was the scribe to the Gods.

Whenever he descended into his own personal hell, which he has described graphically in "Lul de Faltenin", he thought of

Orpheus and the agonising climb back to Earth. Apollinaire whose poetry was so musical identified himself very easily with

Orpheus, the god of music. In "Le Printemps, he saw himself in

his avocation of poet as an incarnation of the god, doomed to

lose his loves. Like Orpheus, the poet, in "Mai", glances

backwards as the boat carrying him goes down the Rhine.

It is now appropriate to attempt to unite the manifold 227 elements of Apollinaire's personality. Of the four divisions mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, the first, second and fourth appear to lead outward from a cross-roads, the same cross roads that Merlin incarnate as the young poet of 1899 stood at.

The difficulty is that there are multiple side roads that join the three arterial highways.

The dominant aspects of Apollinaire's personality which emerge from the analysis that has been undertaken are : Self centredness; the incidence of Bipolar Disorder arising from his unfortunate love affairs and Apollinaire's extraordinary ability to bounce back after, exorcising his misery by writing his best poetry; the dependence on ancient myth and the past, generally, as the best source of poetic inspiration; the personification of abstract concepts and of historical figures into the modern actors in his poetry.

Subordinate facets are: willingness to experiment with new forms of poetry; the dabbling in the Occult; the pre-occupation with death; the extraordinary erudition; the sharp eye for detail; the fascination in his later poetry with the modern world around him; the attraction of the elements of fire and water and of the sky above as a source of imagery; the infinite capacity for mystification; the use of earlier works to flesh out current projects; and last but not least his ability to produce a humorous line even when in the depths of despair.

Finally there are the aspects of Apollinaire's relationships with those he came into contact with. Steadfast friendships with

like-minded friends; his strong sexuality which was often cloaked 228 out of a sense of modesty; a latent cruelty, controlled for the most part.

Apollinaire's personality was a complex one: the mercurial changes that kept on occurring as he moved in and out of love; the influences of the artistic movements of his time; his position as an unelected leader of the avant-garde; the complexity of some of his poetry contrasted with the ineffable beauty and music of his other lyrics will continue to puzzle some but nevertheless will give pleasure to all persons who are prepared to read his wonderful gift to the country he loved so very much, France. 229

NOTES: CONCLUSION

1 Gaston Bachelard, The Psychoanalysis n£. Fire, trans. Alan

CM Ross (Boston: Beacon Press, 1964) .

Gaston Bachelard, L'Eau et les Reves, (Paris: Jose Corti,

1942).

2 Northrop Frye, preface, The Psychoanalysis of. Fire, by

Gaston Bachelard, (Boston: Beacon Press, 1964) vi.

3 Gaston Bachelard, T/F.au et les Reves.

4 Detail of transfers between poems.

From Ha

Le Dome de Cologne Le Printemps

Le Printemps Les Fiangailles

L'Emigrant de Landor Rd.

Le Brasier

Diets d'Amour La Chanson du Mal-Aime

Rhenane d'Automne La Clef

La Clef L'Adieu

La Dame

Adieux L'Emigrant de Landor Rd.

"Les ville sont pleines" L'Emigrant de Landor Rd. L'Anguille 1909

"0 France,France ma patrie" 1909

La Femme assise (notebook) A La Sante

"Je suis Guillaume Apollinaire"A La Sante

Un soir d'ete Automne Malade 231

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INTRODUCTION

The bibliography is subdivided into five sections: Apol•

linaire' s own output, books on general topics relevant to the

study, books by authors dealing specifically with Apollinaire,

articles in periodicals, and a listing of periodicals with issues totally devoted to Apollinaire. The individual items have all been consulted but many of them have been found either redundant

or unsuitable for inclusion in this thesis, whose parameters are

admittedly somewhat circumscribed. The last major bibliography was prepared by Marcel Adema in 19681 and periodic updates have

appeared under the direction of Peter C. Hoy in the series "Les carnets bibliographiques de La Revue des lettres modernes" the

last one available covers the period 1977-1981.2

1 Marcel Adema, Gui 1 1aume Apollinairef 349-371. 2 Peter C. Hoy, Guillaume Apollinaire (oeuvres e_L critique 1 977-1 981) (Paris: Lettres-.Modernes Minard, 1985) 232

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR.

Apollinaire, Guillaume. A3 cools suivi de Le Bestiaire et de

Vitam impendere amori. Collection poesie. Paris:

Gallimard, 1972.

Alcools: choix de poemes. Notices et notes par Roger

Lefevre. Nouveaux classiques Larousse. Paris: Larousse,

1972.

A3, cool s. Fwd. Warren Ramsey. Trans. & notes Anne Hyde

Greet. Berkeley: Univ. of Calif. Press, 1965.

Alcools. Introduction et commentaires par Bernard

Lecherbonnier. Intertextes - Les oeuvres. Paris: Fernand

Nathan, 1983.

Alcools. Ed. A.E. Pilkington. Blackwell's French Texts.

Oxford: Basil Blackwell 1970.

Anecdotiques. Introduction et notes par Marcel Adema.

Paris: Gallimard, 1955. 233

Calliarammes: Poemes de la paix et de la guerre (IQIV

JL9_L£L. Preface de Michel Butor. Collection poesie. Paris:

Gallimard, 1966.

Callicrrammes: Poems of Peace and War M913-1916). Trans.

Anne Hyde Greet. A.H. Greet, and S.I. Lockerbie, eds. Berkeley: Univ. of Calif. Press, 1980.

La Chanson du Mal-Aime. Edition commentee par Maurice

Piron. Paris: Nizet, 1987.

Correspondance avec son frere et sa m£re. Presentee par

Gilbert Boudar et Michel Decaudin. Paris: Jose Corti, 1987.

Chroniques d'art. Introduction et notes par L.-C. Breunig.

Paris: Gallimard, 1960.

Les Diables amoureux. Preface et notes par Michel Decaudin

Paris: Gallimard, 1964. ..

L'Enchanteur pourrissant suivi de Les mamelles de TirCsias et de r.ouleur de temps. Texte etabli et preface par Michel

Decaudin. Collection poesie. Paris: Gallimard,1972.

La Femme assise. Paris: Gallimard, 1948.

Le Flaneur des deux rives suivi de Contemporains pittoresques. Collection idees. Paris: Gallimard, 1975.

Le Guetteur melancolique suivi de Poemes retrouv£s.

Notice de Michel Decaudin. Collection poesie. Paris:

Gallimard, 1980.

Lettres a Lou. Preface et notes de Michel Decaudin.

Paris: Gallimard, 1969. 234

Les Mamelles de Tir^sias. Music by Francis Poulenc.

With Denise Duval and Jean Giraudeau. Cond. Andre Cluytens.

Orch. of the Paris Opera-Comique. Angel, 35090, 1954.

Te Pont Mirahsan.nisqiiPS ADES, 10.043, Paris n.d.

Lettres a sa marraine in Oeuvres completes...

Vol. 4. Paris: Balland & Lecat, 1966.

Oeuvres completes de Guillaume Apollinaire. Edition etablie sous la direction de Michel Decaudin. Vol. 3.

Paris: Andre Balland & Jacques Lecat, 1966. 4 vols.

Oeuvres poetiques. Texte etabli et annote par

Marcel Adema and Michel Decaudin. Preface D'Andre Billy.

Bibliotheque de la Pleiade. Paris: Gallimard, 1965.

Les Peintres cubistes: Meditations esth£tiques. Geneve

Pierre Cailler, 1950.

Les peintres cubistes: Meditations esthetiques.

Presentation et notes de L.C.Breunig & J.- CI. Chevalier.

Paris: Hermann, 1965.

Poemes a Lou precede de II y a. Preface de Michel

Decaudin. Collection poesie. Paris: Gallimard, 1969.

Le Po£te assassine. Edition presentee, etablie et annotee par Michel Decaudin. Collection poesie. Paris:

Gallimard, 1979.

Selected Poems. Trans. Oliver Bernard. London: Anvil

Press Poetry, 1986.

Selected writings of Guillaume Apollinaire. Trans. Roger

Shattuck. New York: James Laughlin, 1948. 235

Snides f pnemes inedits de Guillaume Apollinaire. Publies par Gilbert Boudar, Pierre Caizergues et Michel Decaudin.

Presentation et notes par Pierre Caizergues. Fontfroide:

Bibliotheque artistique & litteraire, 1985.

Tendre comme le souvenir. Introduction par Marcel Adema.

Preface de Madeleine Pages. Paris: Gallimard, 1962.

Textes inedits: avec une introduction de Jeanine Moulin.

Textes litteraires francais. Geneve: Droz, 1952.

Zone. Trans. Samuel Beckett. Dublin: Dolmen Press, 1972. 236

BIBLIOGRAPHY

2. GENERAL WORKS CONSULTED

Bachelard, Gaston. L'Eau et IRS Reves. Paris: Corti, 1942.

La Poetiaue de la Rpysris.. Paris: Presses Universataires

de France, 1960.

The Psychoanalysis•of Fire. Trans. Alan C.M.Ross. Preface

by Northrop Frye. Boston: Beacon Press, 1964.

Bootzin,Richard R., and Joan Ross Acocella. "The Mood

Disorders." Abnormal Psychology: current perspectives.

New York: Random House, 1988. 238 and 245.

Breton, Andre. Manifestes du Surrealisme. Paris: Pauvert, 1962.

Clancier, Georges-Emmanuel. De Rimbaud au Surrealisme: Panorama

cri t igue. Paris: Pierre Seghers, 1964.

Decaudin, Michel. La crise des valeurs symbolistes. Geneve:

Slatkine, 1981.

Delaunay, Robert. Qu r.ubi sme a I7 art abstrait, Paris:

S.E.V.P.E.N., 1957.

Eliade, Mircea. T,e Chamanisme. Paris: Payot, 1951.

Mythes,Reves et Myst^res. Paris: Gallimard, 1957. 237

Golding, John. Cubism: a histnry anH an analysis 1 907-1 91 4 .

New York: George Wittenborn Inc., 1959.

Guthrie, W.K.C. Orpheus and Greek Religion. 2nd ed. London:

Methuen, 1952.

Hodges, William F. "Psychopathology." in Psychology: Tts

Principles and Meanings. Lyle E. Bourne Jr. and Bruce R.

Ekstrand eds. Hinsdale, Illinois: The Dryden Press, 1973.

366-368 .

Marinetti, F.T. Le Futurisme. Lausanne: L'Age d'Homme, 1980.

Meyer, Robert G., and Yvonne Hardaway Osborne. "The Affective

(or Mood) Disorders." Case Studies in Abnormal Behaviour.

Boston: Allyn and Bacon Inc., 1988. 124.

O'Connell, Ralph A. "Depression: Bipolar or Unipolar?"

Affective Disorders. Directions in Psychiatry Monograph

Series 3. New York: W.W. Norton, 1988. 29-37.

Picabia, Francis. 391. re-ed. M. Sanouillet. vol. 1. Paris:

Le Terrain vague, 1960.

Raymond, Marcel. From Baudelaire to Surrealism. trans. Unknown.

London: Peter Owen, 1961.

Richard, Jean-Pierre. "Etoiles chez Apollinaire." De Ronsard

A Breton: Receuil d'essais: Hommages -a Marcel Raymond.

Paris: Librairie Jose Corti, 1967,pp. 223-234.

Salmon, Andre. Souvenirs sans fin. 3 vols. Paris: Gallimard,

1955.

Sanouillet, Michel. Dada A Paris. Paris: Jean-Jacques Pauvert,

19.65. 238

Francis Picabia er. 391. vol. 2. Paris: Eric Losfeld,

1966.

Tomkins, Calvin. The world of Marcel Dnchamp. Alexandria,

Virginia: Time-Life Books, 1977. 239

BIBLIOGRAPHY

3. WORKS ON APOLLINAIRE

Adema, Pierre-Marcel. Album Apollinaire: iconographie reunie

et commentee par Pierre-Marcel Adema et Michel Decaudin.

Bibliotheque de la Pleiade. Paris: Gallimard, 1971.

Guillaume Anol11naire.le mal-aime. Paris: Plon, 1952.

Adlard, John. One evening of light mist in London: the storv of

Annie Playden and Guillaume Apollinaire. Edinburgh: Tragara

Press, 1980.

Aegerter, Emmanuel, and Pierre Labracherie. Guillaume

Apollinaire. Monaco: Editions litteraires de Monaco. 1943.

Antoine, Gerald. "II, En guise de contrepoint, Apollinaire ou le

voleur du feu." Vis-a-vis ou le double regard critique.

Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1982. 209-228.

Armstrong, Gordon. The Mona Lisa Toodle-oo. Dir. Paul Mears.

With Raimund Stamm. The New Play Centre. The Waterfront

Theatre, Granville Island, Vancouver, B.C. 28 April 1989. Balakian, Anna. "Breton in the light of Apollinaire." About

French Poetry from PAPA to "TF.T. QUEL" ; Text and Theory.

Ed. Mary Ann Caws. Detroit: Wayne State University Press,

1974. 42-53.

Barrere, Jean-Bertrand. Le Regard d'Orphee ou l'Echanae

poetique: Hugo - Baudelaire - Rimbaud - Apollinaire. Paris

Societe d'Enseignement superieure, 1977. 9-45 and 187-253.

Bates, Scott. "'Alcools': paradigm phallique et messianique de

l'art masculin moderne." Etudes autour d''Alcools'.

Anne Srabian de Fabry and Marie-France Hilgar eds.

Birmingham, Alabama: Summa Publications Inc., 1985.

131-142.

.• Guillaume Apollinaire. Twayne's World Authors ser. 14.

New York: Twayne Publishers, 1967.

Berry, David Chapman. The creative vision of Guillaume

Apollinaire: A study of imagination. Saratoga, Calif:

Anma Libri, 1982.

Billy, Andre. Avec Apol!i nai re. souvenirs inedits. Paris: La

Palatine, 1966.

Apollinaire. Poetes d'aujourd'hui 8. Paris: Pierre

Seghers, 1947.

Bohn, Willard. Apollinaire et l'homme sans visage creation et

evolution d'un motif moderne. Rome: Bulzoni, 1984.

Bonenfant, Joseph. "La metaphore du soleil dans 'Alcools'."

Etudes autour d' 'Alcools. Anne Srabian de Fabry and Marie-

France Hilgar eds. Birmingham, Alabama: Summa Publications

Inc., 1985. 77-84 Bordat, Denis and Bernard Veck. Apollinaire. Paris: Hachette,

1983.

Bowra, CM.. "Order and adventure in Guillaume Apollinaire."

The Creative Experiment. New York: Grove Press, 1948.

61-93.

Breton, Andre. "La guerre de 1914-1918. - De Guillaume

Apollinaire a Jacques Vache." Entretiens 1913-1952.

Paris: Gallimard, 1969. 12, 18, 21-31.

Breunig, LeRoy C. Guillaume Apollinaire. Columbia essays on

modern writers 46. New York: Columbia University P., 1969.

"From Dada to Cubism, Apollinaire's 'Arbre'." About French

Poetry from DAD A to "TF.T, OUF.T," : Text and Theory. ed. Mary

Ann Caws. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1974.

26-41.

"La Geographie d' 'Alcools' ." Etudes autour d' 'Alcools' .

Anne Srabian de Fabry and Marie-France Hilgar eds.

Birmingham, Alabama: Summa Publications Inc., 1985.

95-106.

Burgos, Jean. "Apollinaire ou les irrealites raisonnables. Sur

les itineraires obliges du texte poetique." Pour une

poetique de 1'imaginaire. Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1982.

253-282.

Butor, Michel. "Monument de rien pour Apollinaire." Repertoi re

XIX. Paris: Editions de Minuit, 1968. 269-305.

Cadou, Rene Guy. Testament d'ApolIinaire: t£moignage. Paris:

R. Debresse, 1945. 242

Cailler, Pierre. Compilateur. Guillaume Apollinaire: documents

iconographigues. Collection Visages d'hommes celebres.

Geneve: P. Cailler, 1965.

Caizergues, Pierre. Apollinaire et la Democratie sociale.

Textes retrouves et presentes. Archives des Lettres

modernes 101. Paris: Lettres Modernes, 1969.

. Apollinaire Journaliste: Les debuts et la formation

du journaliste (1900-1909. 1.1900-1906 2.1907-1909.

Bibliotheque des Lettres Modernes 30. Paris: Minard,

1981.

"Fortune et infortune de Apollinaire en Suisse." De

l'ordre et de l'aventure: Melanges offerts a Pierre

Olivier Walzer. Neuchatel: A la Baconniere, 1985. 121-136.

Carmody, Francis J. The evolution of Apol1inaire's Poetics:

1901-1914. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1963.

Caws, Mary Ann. "Apollinaire and his readers." A metapoeti cs

of the passage. Architextures in Surrealism and after.

Hanover: Hanover University Press of New England, 1982.

78-95.

Chevalier, Jean Claude. "Alcools" d'Apollinaire: essai d'analyse

des formes poetiques. Bibliotheque des Lettres Modernes

17. Paris: Minard, 1970.

Couffignal, Robert. Apollinaire. Les ecrivains devant Dieu.

Paris: Desclee De Brouwer, 1966.

—-. L'Inspiration bib!ique dans 1'oeuvre de Guillaume

Apol1inai re. Bibliotheque des Lettres Modernes 8.

Paris: Lettres Modernes, 1966. Cranston, Mechtild. Enfance mon amour: la reverie vers l'p.nfannp.

dans l'oeuvre de Guillaume Apollinaire, .Saint-John Perse et

Rene Char. Paris: Nouvelles Editions Debresse, 1970.

Davies, Margaret. Apollinai re. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd,

1964.

"'Le Brasier'." Etudes autour d' 'Alnnnls'. Anne Srabian

de Fabry and Marie-France Hilgar eds. Birmingham,

Alabama: 1985. 1-13.

"Merveilles de la guerre. The evolution of •

Apollinaire's 'Ideogrammes lyriques'." Melanges de

litterature francaise moderne offerts k Garnet Rees. Paris:

Librairie Minard, 1980. 77-102.

Debon, Claude. Calligrammes; le poete et la guerre. Vol. 1. of

Guillaume Apollinaire apres la guerre. Paris: Lettres

Modernes, 1981.

Decaudin, Michel. "Apollinaire et Marinetti." Melanges de

litterature francaise moderne offerts a Garnet Rees. Paris:

Librairie Minard, 1980. 103-115.

Le Dossier d'Alcools. Paris: Minard; Geneva: Droz, 1960.

"De 1'inexistence des 'Poemes a Lou'." De l'ordre et de

1'aventure. Melanges offerts k Pierre Olivier Walzer

Neuchatel: A la Baconniere, 1985. 137-146.

"Sur quelques vies imaginaires de Guillaume Apollinaire."

Melanges de la bibliotheque de la Sorbonne V. Paris:

Bibliotheque de la Sorbonne, 1984. pp.81-93. De Fabry, Anne. "Peripatetisme et Amphionie: de l'esthetique

d''Alcools'." Etudes autour d'Alcools. Anne Srabian de

Fabry and Marie-France Hilgar, eds. Birmingham,Alabama:

Summa Publications Inc., 1985. 151-181.

Dininman, Francoise. "Toujours a propos de 'Colchiques'."

Etudes autour d' 'Alcools'. Anne Srabian de Fabry and

Marie-France Hilgar eds. Birmingham, Alabama: Summa

Publications Inc., 1985. 25-40.

Durry, Marie-Jeanne. Guillaume Apollinaire: Alcools. 3 vols.

Paris: Societe d'edition d'enseignement superieure, 1964.

Faure-Favier, Louise. Souvenirs sur Guillaume Apollinaire.

Paris: B. Grasset, 1945.

Follet, Lionel et Marc Poupon. Lecture de "Palais" d'Apol1inaire.

Archives des Lettres modernes 138. Paris: Lettres

Modernes, 1972.

Fonteyne, Andre. Apollinaire prosateur; L'H&r£s i a rque et Gie. .

Paris:A.G. Nizet, 1964.

Frohlicher, Peter. T,e Rrasier d' Apol 1 i na i re: lecture s£miotique.

Archives des Lettres modernes 208. Paris: Lettres

Modernes, 1983.

Frutkin, Mark. Atmospheres Apollinaire. Erin, Ontario: The

Porcupine's Quill, 1988.

Gill, Brian. "Les Variations de personne dans ''Alcools'."

Etudes autour d' 'Alcools'. Anne Srabian de Fabry and Marie-

France Hilgar eds. Birmingham, Alabama: Summa Publications

Inc., 1985. 51-63. 245

Goffin, Robert. F.ntrer en Po£sie. Gand: A L'Enseigne du Chat

Qui Peche, 1948.

Greet, Anne Hyde. Apollinaire et le livre de peintre. Paris:

Lettres Modernes 1977.

Harding, Gunnar. The fabulous life of Guillaume Apollinaire.

trans, author and Sydney Bernard Smith. Dublin: Raven

Arts Press, 1982.

Hermans, Theo. "Apollinaire's Perspectives." The Structure of

Modernist Poetry. London: Croom Helm, 1982. 48-84, 239-

240.

Hoy, Peter. Guillaume Apollinaire. oeuvres et critique 1977-1981.

Les carnets bibliographiques de La Revue des lettres

modernes. Paris: Lettres Modernes, 1985.

Igly, France. Apollinaire: ami et defenseur des peintres

cubistes: choix de poemes. Sherbrooke: Naaman, 1982.

Jacaret,. Gilberte. La dialectique de I'ironie et du lyrisme

dans Alcools et Calligrammes de G. Apollinaire. Paris:

A.-G.Nizet, 1984.

Jannini, Pasquale Aniel. Le avanguardia letterarie nell'idea

critica di Guillaume Apollinaire. Rome: Bulzoni, 1971.

. La fortuna di Apollinaire in Italia, con nuovi testi

dj Apollinaire prp.sentati da R. Warnier. 2nd ed. Milan:

Istitutio Editorial Cisalpino, 1965. 246

Jones, Henri. "Entre expressionisme et cubisme: Apollinaire

peintre de la plume." Etudes autour d''Alcools' Anne

Srabian de Fabry and Marie-France Hilgar eds.

Birmingham, Alabama: Summa Publications.Inc., 1985. 119-

130.

Kelley, David. "Defeat and rebirth. The city poetry of

Apollinaire." Unreal city: Urban experience in modern

European literature and art, eds. Edward Timms and David

Kelley. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1985.

80-96.

Laborie, Paule. Robert Desnos: son oeuvre dans l'^clairage

de Arthur Rimbaud et Guillaume Apollinaire: essai. Paris:

A.-G. Nizet, 1975.

Leautaud, Paul. Entretiens avec Robert Mallet. Paris:

Gallimard, 1951. 274-278.

Little, Roger. Guillaume Apollinaire. London: Athlone Press,

1976.

Luca, A. Toussaint. Guillaume Apollinaire: souvenirs d'un ami.

Monaco: Editions du Rocher, 1954.

Mackworth, Cecily. Guillaume Apollinaire and the cubist life.

London: Murray, 1961.

Mathews, Timothy. Reading Apollinaire: Theories of poetic

language. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1987.

Montfort, Eugene. Apollinaire travesti. Paris: Pierre Seghers,

1948 . Morhange-Begue, Claude et Pierre Lartigue. C-ni 1 1 anmp

Apollinaire : Alcool s : Analyse critique. Paris: Hatier,

1980.

. La chanson du mal-aime d'Apol1inaire: essai d'analyse

structural!? et stylistigue. Bibliotheque des Lettres

modernes 18. Paris: Lettres Modernes, 1970.

Newman-Gordon, Pauline. "Apotheoses solaires et astrales chez

Apollinaire." Etudes autour d''Alcools'. Anne Srabian

de Fabry and Marie-France Hilgar eds. Birmingham, Alabama

Summa Publications Inc., 1985. 85-93.

. Corbiere - Laforaue - Apollinaire. ou le Hre en plsnrs.

Paris: Nouvelles editions Debresse, 1964. 9-13 and 87-147

Orecchioni, Pierre. Le theme du Rhin dans 1'inspiration de

Guillaume Apollinaire. Paris: Lettres Modernes, 1956.

Payet-Burin, Roger. "Apollinaire et 'L'esprit nouveau'."

Emerveillement et lucidite poetiques. Paris: Nizet, 1977.

51-81.

Pernet, Jean. "La Place et la signification des Sept Epees dans

'La Chanson du Mal-Aime'." Etudes autour d' 'Alcools'.

Anne Srabian de Fabry and Marie-France Hilgar eds.

Birmingham, Alabama: Summa Publications Inc., 1985. 15-24

Peytard, Jean. "Apollinaire et les structures variantes: Forme

et De-forme du sens, 'Le pont Mirabeau'." Syntagmes 2.

(Annales litteraires de 1'Universite de Besancon). Paris:

Les Belles Lettres, 1978. 289-302. 248

"Apollinaire et les structures variantes: Le cercle ouvert,

'Nuit Rhenane'." Syntagmes 2. (Annales litt£raires

de 1'Universit.e de Besancon) . Paris: Les Belles Lettres,

1978. 303-311.

Pia, Pascal. Apollinaire par lui-meme. Ecrivains de toujours.

Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1960.

Pifon, Maurice. Guillaume Apollinaire et TArdenne. Jacques

Antoine, n.d.,n.p.

Poupon, Marc. Apollinaire et Cendrars. Archives des Lettres

modernes" 103. Paris: Lettres Modernes, 1969.

Renaud, Philippe. Lecture d'Apol1inaire. Lausanne: Editions

l'Age d'homme, 1969.

. Les traiets du Phenix: de la Chanson du mal-aim£ a

1'ensemble d'Alcools. Archives des Lettres modernes 209.

Paris: Lettres modernes 1983.

Richard, Jean-Pierre. "Etoiles chez Apollinaire" De Ronsard

a Breton: Hommages a Marcel Raymond. Paris: Corti, 1967.

223-234 .

Richter, Mario. "'La Blanche Neige' d'Apollinaire." Etudes

autour d' 'Alcools'. Anne Srabian de Fabry and Marie-France

Hilgar eds. Birmingham, Alabama: Summa Publications Inc.

1985. 41-50.

"'Le Musicien de Saint-Merry'. A propos des 'mordonnantes

meriennes'." La crise du logos et la quete du mythe.

Neuchatel: A la Baconniere, 1976. 99-105.

"'La Victoire'." La crise du logos et la quete du mythe.

Neuchatel: A la Baconniere, 1976. 106-147. Romeo, Therese. "Apollinaire paysagiste." Etudes autour

d' 'Alcools' . Anne Srabian de Fabry and Marie-France

Hilgar eds. Birmingham, Alabama: Summa Publications Inc.

1985. 107-118.

Roudaut, Jean. "La fete d'Apollinaire." He qui nous revient:

'Autobiographie. Paris: Gallimard, 1980. 377-407.

Rouveyre, Andre Louis Marie. Amour et poesie d'Apol1inaire.

Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1955.

Apol1inai re. Paris: Gallimard 1945.

. "Au bras de Guillaume Apollinaire." Souvenirs de

mon commerce: Gourmont - Apollinaire - Moreas - Soury.

Paris: Les Editions G. Cres et Cie., 1921. 117-178.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

5. SPECIAL SERIES, REVIEWS AND PERIODICALS DEVOTED TO APOLLINAIRE

Archives des lettres modernes

Archives Guillaume Apollinaire

1 Caizergues, P.,. "Apollinaire et la democratie sociale",

'101 (1969)...

6 Follet, L. & Poupon, M.. "Lecture de 'Palais'", 138

(1972) .

7 Frohlicher, P., "'Le Brasier'd'Apollinaire - lecture

semiotique." 208 (1983)

8 Renaud, P., 'Les trajets du Phenix de la "Chanson du Mal-

Aime" a 1'ensemble d''Alcools', 209 (1983)

Europe 451-2 (1966).

Le Flaneur des deux rives, 1,2,3,4,6,7-8 (1954-5)

International Colloquium on Apollinaire. Proc. of a

.Conference under the auspices of the Maison Francaise at

the University of Oxford, 17-19 April 1980. Published in

Essays in French Literature XVII Nedlands: Univ of Western

Australia, 1980. 276

Journees Apollinaire: Ant.es du Collogue de Stavelot

4 Apollinaire et la nrnsigiip., Actes du Colloque de Stavelot

1965 (Stavelot,1967)

5 Du Monde europeen A 1 Minivers des mythes, Actes du Colloque

de Stavelot 1968, ed. Michel Decaudin, Bibliotheque

Guillaume Apollinaire, 5 (Paris, 1970)

6 Apollinaire inventeur des langages, Actes du Colloque de

Stavelot 1970, ed. Michel Decaudin, Bibliotheque Guillaume

Apollinaire , 7 (Paris, 1973)

7 Regards sur Apollinaire conteurf Actes du Colloque de

Stavelot 1973, ed. Michel Decaudin, Bibliotheque Guillaume

Apollinaire, 8 (Paris 1975)

8 Apollinaire et la peinture, Actes du Colloque de Stavelot

1975, Que Vlo-ve?, 21-22 (1979)

9 Lecture et interpretation des calligrammes, Actes du

Colloque de Stavelot 1977, Que vlo-ve?, 29-30 (1981)

10 Apollinaire et les arts du spectacle, Actes du Colloque de

Stavelot 1980, Bereni ce, 3 (1982)

11 Naissance du texte apollinarien, Actes du Colloque de

Stavelot 1982, Que vlo-ve?, 2, 6-7 (1983)

12 Experience et imagination de 1'amour dans l'oeuvre

d'Apol1i nai re, Actes du Colloque de Stavelot 1984,

La revue des lettres modernes, 17, 805-811 (1987)

Que vlo-ve?. 1, 1-30, (1973-1981) & 2, 1-24, (1982-1987)

La Revue des lettres modernes.

1 Apollinaire, le cubisme et 1'esprit nouveau, 69-70 (1962)

2 Cinquantenaire d''Alcools', 85-89 (1963) 277

3 Apollinaire et les surealistes, 104-107 (1964)

4 'Les Mamelles de Tiresias' , XL'Heresiarque et Cie', 123-126

(1965)

5 Echos de Stavelot, 146-149 (1966)

6 Images d'un destin, 166-169 (1967)

7 1918-1968, 183-188 (1968)

8 Colloque de Varsovie, 217-222 (1969)

9 Autour de- 1'inspiration allemande et du Lied,249-253

(1970)

10 Methodes et approches critiques, 1, 276-279 (1971)

11 Methodes et Approches critiques, 2, 327-330 (1972)

12 Apollinaire et la guerre, 1, 380-384 (1973)

.13 Apollinaire et la guerre, 2, 450-455 (1976)

14 Recours aux sources, 1, 530-536 (1978)

15 Recours aux sources, 2, 576-581 (1980)

16 xLa Chanson du mal-aime' encore et toujours, 677-681

(1983)

17 Experience et imagination de 1'amour dans 1'oeuvre

d'Apollinaire, 805-811 (1987)

La Tahle ronHe. 57 (1952)

Revue des Sciences humaines, 84 (1956) 278

INDEX OF POEMS ANALYSED

(Arranged alphabetically)

YrMoDy Page

090700 1909 165

110900 A La Sante 185

040000 Adieu (1') 126

050000 Annie - 132

960000 Aurore d' Hiver . 51

011000 Automne 84

011000 Automne malade 87

020802 Bacs (les) 78

011200 Blanche neige (la) 88

080000 Brasier (le) . .- 148

031100 Chanson du Mal-Aime (la) 107

010000 Clair de lune 71

021100 Clef (la) 106

020500 Cloches (les) 97

040000 Clotilde 126

010900 Colchiques (les) 80 279

120200 Cors de chasse 193

080000 Cortege 153

010900 Crepuscule 76

050000 Crepuscule 137

021100 Dame (la) 107

010900 Dans le jardin d'/Anna 86

010000 Diets d'amour a Linda (les) 72

970000 Doukhobors (les) 52

020200 Dome de Cologne (le) • 78

011000 Elegie .84 .

990000 Elegie du voyageur aux pieds blesses 53

050200 Emigrant de Landor Road (1') 127

990000 Ermite (1') 55

990000 Fagnes de Wallonie 53

011200 Femmes (les) 77

080000 Fiancailles (les) 157

050000 Fuite (la) / Enfant d'or (1') 135

010000 H6tels 70

990000 Larron (le) 63

980000 Lecture 53

020500 Loreley (la) 94

071105 Lul de Faltenin 139

020500 Mai 96

020400 Maison des morts (la) 89

980000 Mardi Gras 53

111000 Marie 191

011000 Marizibill ..78 280

990000 Merlin et la vieille femme 57

020800 Mille regrets 101

970000 Mort de Pan 52

020500 Nuit Rhenane 95

080000 Onirocritique 147

050000 Palais 133

011000 Passion 77

010900 Plongeon 75

111000 Pont Mirabeau (le) 188

010000 Porte (la) 69

090713 Poeme lu au mariage d'Andre Salmon 162

020500 Printemps (le) 98

011100 Rhenane d'automne 85

020500 Rolandseck 80

050000 Rosemonde .....136

051200 Salome 136-

050000. Saltimbanques 137

011000 Sapins (les) 76

011000 Schinderhannes 77

010928 Synagogue (la) 76

960000 Triptyque de 1'Homme 52

020400 Tzigane (la) 90

050000 Un soir 131

020600 Un soir d'Ete 100

090900 Vendemiaire 166

010900 Vent nocturne (le) 76

011000 Vierge a la fleur d'haricot de Cologne (la) 77 281

020400 Villes sont pleines (les) 80

100000 Voyageur (le) 178

120700 Zone 197 282

INDEX OF POEMS ANALYSED

(Arranged by date of composition)

YrMoDy Page

960000 Aurore d'Hiver 51

960000 Triptyque de 1'Homme 52

970000 Doukhobors (les) 52

970000 Mort de Pan 52

980000 Lecture 53

980000 Mardi Gras 53

990000 Ermite (1') 55

990000 Fagnes de Wallonie . . . . 53

990000 Larron (le) 63

990000 Merlin et la vieille femme ....57

990000 Elegie du voyageur aux pieds blesses 53

010000 Clair de lune 71

010000 Diets d'amour a Linda (les) 72

010000 Hotels 70

010000 Porte (la) '. 69

010900 Colchiques (les) 80 283

010900 Crepuscule 76

010900 Dans le jardin d'Anna 86

010900 Plongeon 75

010900 Vent nocturne (le) 76

010928 Synagogue (la) 76

011000 Automne malade 87

011000 Automne .....84

011000 Marizibill 78

011000 Passion 77

011000 Sapins (les) 76

011000- Schinderhannes 77

011000 Vierge a la fleur d'haricot de Cologne (la) 77

011000 Elegie 84

011100 Rhenane d'automne - 85

011200 Blanche neige (la) 88

011200 Femmes (les) 77

020200 D6me de Cologne (le) 78

020400 Maison des morts (la) 89

020400 Tzigane (la) 90

020400 Villes sont pleines (les) 80

020500 Cloches (les) - 97

020500 Loreley (la) 94

020500 Mai 96

020500 Nuit Rhenane 95

020500 Printemps (le) 98

020500 Rolandseck 80

020600 Un soir d'Ete 100 284

020800 Mille regrets 101

020802 Bacs (les) 78

021100 Clef (la) 106

021100 Dame (la) 107

031100 Chanson du Mal-Aime (la) 107

040000 Adieu (1') • 126

040000 Clotilde 126

050000 Annie 132

050000 Crepuscule 137

050000 Fuite (la) / Enfant d'or (1') 135

050000 Palais 133

050000 Rosemonde 136

050000 Saltimbanques 137

050000 Un soir - 131

050200 Emigrant de Landor Road (1') . 127

051200 Salome 136

071105 Lui de Faltenin 139

080000 Brasier (le) 148

080000 Cortege 153

080000 Fiangailles (les) 157

080000 Onirocritique 147

090700 1909 165

090713 Poeme lu au mariage d'Andre Salmon 162

090900 Vendemiaire 166

100000 Voyageur (le) 178

110900 A La Sante 185

111000 Marie 191 285

111000 Pont Mirabeau (le) 188

120200 Cors de chasse 193

120700 Zone 197