Spatial Structure in Saint-Simonian Poetics
101
In this stanza, the rhythmical effect is underscored by the anaphora of
the prepositions “par” and “de” throughout. In normal circumstances a
preposition serves to indicate the temporal, spatial or logical relationship of its object to the rest of the sentence. However, with the repetition of prepositional phrases in this stanza the link to the clause “Le
soleil y vit…” in the preceding stanza is no longer immediate. What
results is a kind of parataxis par contre-coup, according to which the
accumulation of prepositions actually isolates each phrase from the
main clause, with the effect that successive images are juxtaposed. As
the poet-observer experiences it, the world of the temple seems to be
governed by contingency; however the act of repetition achieves a
mesmerizing totality of effect which envelops him in the scene.
Chevalier’s poem also suggests an intriguing formal receptiveness to contemporary developments in architecture and civil engineering. In Le Livre nouveau, Enfantin is attentive to the potential
applications of contemporary developments in the science of elasticity, suggesting that future architectural designs would place less importance on adherence to principles of spatial form and composition
inherited from Greek and Roman architecture and more recent neoclassicism. The latter, he claimed, were responsible for “despotisme
contre la matière”, resulting from a denial of the material substance
and environmental situation of built structures.
23 As we have seen,
Chevalier’s text is formally resonant with similar concerns to those of
Enfantin, through its expansion and contraction of the verse line according to the enumeration and accumulation of images by the poetic
gaze. Such “elasticity” filters also into the metric structure of the
poem, notably through the frequent deployment of imparisyllabic line
lengths of seven and nine syllables and eleven and thirteen syllables.
This formal peculiarity reflects a more flexible attitude to the conventional metric forms of the Alexandrine and the octosyllable. Together
with the thematic incursion of pastoral motifs into urban scenes, and
of that of the vegetal into the architectural, these formal and thematic
aspects of the text combine to suggest the potential for new poetic
forms to emerge organically around the armature of older variants. On
this point, Chevalier’s temple is a fundamentally styleless composite,
but at the same time a dynamic synthesis of all possible architectural
___________________________
23 Barrault and others, Le Livre nouveau des Saint-Simoniens, p. 176.
101
In this stanza, the rhythmical effect is underscored by the anaphora of
the prepositions “par” and “de” throughout. In normal circumstances a
preposition serves to indicate the temporal, spatial or logical relationship of its object to the rest of the sentence. However, with the repetition of prepositional phrases in this stanza the link to the clause “Le
soleil y vit…” in the preceding stanza is no longer immediate. What
results is a kind of parataxis par contre-coup, according to which the
accumulation of prepositions actually isolates each phrase from the
main clause, with the effect that successive images are juxtaposed. As
the poet-observer experiences it, the world of the temple seems to be
governed by contingency; however the act of repetition achieves a
mesmerizing totality of effect which envelops him in the scene.
Chevalier’s poem also suggests an intriguing formal receptiveness to contemporary developments in architecture and civil engineering. In Le Livre nouveau, Enfantin is attentive to the potential
applications of contemporary developments in the science of elasticity, suggesting that future architectural designs would place less importance on adherence to principles of spatial form and composition
inherited from Greek and Roman architecture and more recent neoclassicism. The latter, he claimed, were responsible for “despotisme
contre la matière”, resulting from a denial of the material substance
and environmental situation of built structures.
23 As we have seen,
Chevalier’s text is formally resonant with similar concerns to those of
Enfantin, through its expansion and contraction of the verse line according to the enumeration and accumulation of images by the poetic
gaze. Such “elasticity” filters also into the metric structure of the
poem, notably through the frequent deployment of imparisyllabic line
lengths of seven and nine syllables and eleven and thirteen syllables.
This formal peculiarity reflects a more flexible attitude to the conventional metric forms of the Alexandrine and the octosyllable. Together
with the thematic incursion of pastoral motifs into urban scenes, and
of that of the vegetal into the architectural, these formal and thematic
aspects of the text combine to suggest the potential for new poetic
forms to emerge organically around the armature of older variants. On
this point, Chevalier’s temple is a fundamentally styleless composite,
but at the same time a dynamic synthesis of all possible architectural
___________________________
23 Barrault and others, Le Livre nouveau des Saint-Simoniens, p. 176.