Greg Kerr
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styles; this much is suggested by the diverse architectural styles conjured up by pyramids, minarets, telegraph poles, by the pointed emphasis on the use of steel, copper, bronze and cast iron for the roof of
the building and by the extremely diverse types of stone evoked in the
following fragmentary verse:
Cascades couvrant de leur écume les blocs de la
Finlande, le granit de l’Altaï, le porphyre du Caucase,
le marbre des Pyrénées, le calcaire des Alpes, les
basaltes des Cordilières, les monceaux de fer de
l’Afrique.
24
A similar paradigm of amalgam seems to be implied when the speaker
remarks of the temple that “toutes les végétations s’y unissent”.
25
From an alternative angle, amalgam is also a writing strategy manifest
in Chevalier’s liberal borrowing from diverse literary styles.
Utilitarian images (“terrains chauffés par combustion souterraine”)
abut orientalist tropes (“mystérieux asiles du plaisir” […] “puits
entouré des sables du Sahara”) while expressions belonging to
Romantic poetry (“Là règnent les amours les plus vives et les plus /
profondes, etc.”) are thrown into relief alongside figures from a
mystical idiom (“la vie femelle dans les nerfs du plexus solaire”).
26
Treated in isolation these elements possess only stock value, but their
juxtaposition gives rise to a stylistic tension that dynamizes the text
and renders it difficult to characterize according to conventional categories. By consequence, the poem seems to incite the reader to develop a panoramic perspective similar to that of the spectator it
describes. Chevalier’s ideal reader is one who reads in a spontaneous,
un-premeditated manner and seeks neither to brood over the poem’s
technical achievements nor its original insights. Like the spectator,
such a reader would not focus on individual elements but would cultivate a more immediate, panoramic perspective on the text. Chevalier’s
measure of poetic skill does not lie in a masterful knowledge of prosodic convention nor in technical perfection of and for itself, but in the
deployment of rhetorical devices and syntactical idiosyncrasies which
create a sense of incompletion and anticipation.
___________________________
24 Chevalier, “Le Temple”, p.242.
25 Chevalier, “Le Temple”, p.242.
26 Chevalier, “Le Temple”, pp. 241-42.
102
styles; this much is suggested by the diverse architectural styles conjured up by pyramids, minarets, telegraph poles, by the pointed emphasis on the use of steel, copper, bronze and cast iron for the roof of
the building and by the extremely diverse types of stone evoked in the
following fragmentary verse:
Cascades couvrant de leur écume les blocs de la
Finlande, le granit de l’Altaï, le porphyre du Caucase,
le marbre des Pyrénées, le calcaire des Alpes, les
basaltes des Cordilières, les monceaux de fer de
l’Afrique.
24
A similar paradigm of amalgam seems to be implied when the speaker
remarks of the temple that “toutes les végétations s’y unissent”.
25
From an alternative angle, amalgam is also a writing strategy manifest
in Chevalier’s liberal borrowing from diverse literary styles.
Utilitarian images (“terrains chauffés par combustion souterraine”)
abut orientalist tropes (“mystérieux asiles du plaisir” […] “puits
entouré des sables du Sahara”) while expressions belonging to
Romantic poetry (“Là règnent les amours les plus vives et les plus /
profondes, etc.”) are thrown into relief alongside figures from a
mystical idiom (“la vie femelle dans les nerfs du plexus solaire”).
26
Treated in isolation these elements possess only stock value, but their
juxtaposition gives rise to a stylistic tension that dynamizes the text
and renders it difficult to characterize according to conventional categories. By consequence, the poem seems to incite the reader to develop a panoramic perspective similar to that of the spectator it
describes. Chevalier’s ideal reader is one who reads in a spontaneous,
un-premeditated manner and seeks neither to brood over the poem’s
technical achievements nor its original insights. Like the spectator,
such a reader would not focus on individual elements but would cultivate a more immediate, panoramic perspective on the text. Chevalier’s
measure of poetic skill does not lie in a masterful knowledge of prosodic convention nor in technical perfection of and for itself, but in the
deployment of rhetorical devices and syntactical idiosyncrasies which
create a sense of incompletion and anticipation.
___________________________
24 Chevalier, “Le Temple”, p.242.
25 Chevalier, “Le Temple”, p.242.
26 Chevalier, “Le Temple”, pp. 241-42.