Greg Kerr
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quent reference to vegetation (“des champs de plantes grasses”… “des
forêts de minces bambous”). Similarly, potentially sterile
representations such as that of a timber yard may be expressed in
exotic and sensual terms, for example, “les troncs des bois durcis dans
les eaux tièdes de la Gambie et du fleuve des Amazones sont coupés
par tranches comme les chairs d'un fruit fondant”.
14 Within this shifting environment, a vast range of objects compete for the poet’s gaze.
These are glimpsed only in isolation, as in the following segments of
phrases, framed by commas: “Des milliers de candélabres, groupés en
guirlandes autour des places, ou soutenus dans les airs sur des
trépieds de cariatides, prolongent dans toute la droiture de ma ville”,
“colonnes d’herbes géantes, des grappes de fruits et de fleurs saillent
des intervalles; et ces sphères entassées”, and “[a]utour de son vaste
corps, jusqu’à sa ceinture, montent en spirale, à travers les vitraux,
des galeries qui s’échelonnent”.
15
Each of the syntactical groupings or “interludes” (shown in
emphasis here) are framed by punctuation, conveying an isolated
glimpse. Lexically, the second of these examples draws attention to its
own visual distinctiveness by the phrase “saillent des intervalles”,
suggesting a graphic immediacy of effect. Meanwhile, the third example presents the reader with a figure of visual fragmentation. The tensions generated by the new configuration of urban and rural features
are also active on a stylistic level in the poem. Competition for the poetic gaze occurs, prompting a spontaneous borrowing from diverse
registers. The text’s panoramic ambit also encompasses tropes from
fantasy literature (“les jardins aux fruits de neige et de glace”
16 ). It is
moreover possible to identify tensions internal to these tropes, as in
the segment, “les monuments semblent descendre d’une grotte
invisible, comme les palais de larmes du creux des montagnes, ou
monter au ciel en légers cristaux”.
17 Here, the gaze is undecided between a biblical “vale of tears” motif and a description of caves,
mountains and crystals in the fantastic mode.
In “La Ville nouvelle” Duveyrier seeks to convey the poet’s
assimilation into an aggregate of sensation. To this end, one of the
most emblematic figures of this poem (and of Chevalier’s “Le Tem___________________________
14 Duveyrier, “La Ville nouvelle”, p. 230.
15 Duveyrier, “La Ville nouvelle”, pp. 232-3.
16 Duveyrier, “La Ville nouvelle”, p. 228.
17 Duveyrier, “La Ville nouvelle”, p. 230.
98
quent reference to vegetation (“des champs de plantes grasses”… “des
forêts de minces bambous”). Similarly, potentially sterile
representations such as that of a timber yard may be expressed in
exotic and sensual terms, for example, “les troncs des bois durcis dans
les eaux tièdes de la Gambie et du fleuve des Amazones sont coupés
par tranches comme les chairs d'un fruit fondant”.
14 Within this shifting environment, a vast range of objects compete for the poet’s gaze.
These are glimpsed only in isolation, as in the following segments of
phrases, framed by commas: “Des milliers de candélabres, groupés en
guirlandes autour des places, ou soutenus dans les airs sur des
trépieds de cariatides, prolongent dans toute la droiture de ma ville”,
“colonnes d’herbes géantes, des grappes de fruits et de fleurs saillent
des intervalles; et ces sphères entassées”, and “[a]utour de son vaste
corps, jusqu’à sa ceinture, montent en spirale, à travers les vitraux,
des galeries qui s’échelonnent”.
15
Each of the syntactical groupings or “interludes” (shown in
emphasis here) are framed by punctuation, conveying an isolated
glimpse. Lexically, the second of these examples draws attention to its
own visual distinctiveness by the phrase “saillent des intervalles”,
suggesting a graphic immediacy of effect. Meanwhile, the third example presents the reader with a figure of visual fragmentation. The tensions generated by the new configuration of urban and rural features
are also active on a stylistic level in the poem. Competition for the poetic gaze occurs, prompting a spontaneous borrowing from diverse
registers. The text’s panoramic ambit also encompasses tropes from
fantasy literature (“les jardins aux fruits de neige et de glace”
16 ). It is
moreover possible to identify tensions internal to these tropes, as in
the segment, “les monuments semblent descendre d’une grotte
invisible, comme les palais de larmes du creux des montagnes, ou
monter au ciel en légers cristaux”.
17 Here, the gaze is undecided between a biblical “vale of tears” motif and a description of caves,
mountains and crystals in the fantastic mode.
In “La Ville nouvelle” Duveyrier seeks to convey the poet’s
assimilation into an aggregate of sensation. To this end, one of the
most emblematic figures of this poem (and of Chevalier’s “Le Tem___________________________
14 Duveyrier, “La Ville nouvelle”, p. 230.
15 Duveyrier, “La Ville nouvelle”, pp. 232-3.
16 Duveyrier, “La Ville nouvelle”, p. 228.
17 Duveyrier, “La Ville nouvelle”, p. 230.