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Paul Valéry |
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Biography | |
Paul Valéry was born in Sète but was raised in Montpellier where he went to high school and eventually studied law, though he abandoned his degree plans and moved to Paris to pursue a career as a writer. He became a regular at Mallarmé's salons and began publishing in avant-garde magazines. In 1892 he had an existential crisis during a thunderstorm which began a 20 year silence during which Valéry studied mathematics, philosophy and language, and kept a series of notebooks that were later published. At age 46 he broke his poetic silence with the publication of La Jeune Parque. He was elected to the Académie française in 1925. Valéry died at the age of 73 in Paris and is buried in Sète. |
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Poems | |
Les pas
Le cimetière marinCe toit tranquille, où marchent des colombes,Entre les pins palpite, entre les tombes; Midi le juste y compose de feux La mer, la mer, toujours recommencee O récompense après une pensée Qu'un long regard sur le calme des dieux! Quel pur travail de fins éclairs consume Stable trésor, temple simple à Minerve, Temple du Temps, qu'un seul soupir résume, Comme le fruit se fond en jouissance, Beau ciel, vrai ciel, regarde-moi qui change! L'âme exposée aux torches du solstice, O pour moi seul, à moi seul, en moi-même, Sais-tu, fausse captive des feuillages, Fermé, sacré, plein d'un feu sans matière, Chienne splendide, écarte l'idolâtre! Ici venu, l'avenir est paresse. Les morts cachés sont bien dans cette terre Tu n'as que moi pour contenir tes craintes! Ils ont fondu dans une absence épaisse, Les cris aigus des filles chatouillées, Et vous, grande âme, espérez-vous un songe Maigre immortalité noire et dorée, Pères profonds, têtes inhabitées, Amour, peut-être, ou de moi-même haine? Zénon! Cruel Zénon! Zénon d'Êlée! Non, non! . . . Debout! Dans l'ère successive! Oui! grande mer de delires douée, Le vent se lève! . . . il faut tenter de vivre! |
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Themes | |
The writing of Paul Valéry was influenced greatly by the writing and friendship of Mallarmé. Valéry rejected free verse, using mainly octosyllables, decasyllables and alexandrines in the fewer than 100 poems he published during his lifetime. This formal meter helped preserve a mystery and sense of harmony in his work. In Valéry's poems the reader always plays an active role in the poem. The use of metatextuality, symbols, and puns creates a situation where the readers does as much work as the poet. Valéry once wrote that some authors are overwhelmed by the urge to write, rather than by actually having something to say, and that this powerful urge therefore reduces literature to its active state. When he was not writing poetry, Valéry filled notebooks with his private thoughts, but he also saw poetry as an instrument of self-knowledge and self-possession. |
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Bibliography | |
Works Cited Bouveresse, Jacques. "Philosophy from an antiphilosopher: Paul Valery." Critical Inquiry 21.2 (Winter95 1995): 354. Brewerton, Andrew. "ON MAKING: Towards a Glass Poetics." Craft Arts International (Nov. 2003): 102-104. Canovas, Frédéric. De l'intelligence et de la sensibilité: Paul Valéry et André Gide. Bulletin des Etudes valéryennes 95 (November 2003): 3-25. Canovas, Frédéric. 'Ce livre aux pages azur': remarques pour une textanalyse. Bulletin des Etudes Valéryennes 76/77 (November 1997): 129-47. Epstein, Joseph. "The intimate abstraction of Paul Valéry." New Criterion 21.7 (Mar. 2003): 17. Fraser, Russell. "Painting by the Numbers in Paul Valéry." Southern Review 40.1 (Winter2004 2004): 158-171. Genette, Gerard. "Paul Valery: Literature as Such." Style 33.3 (Fall99 1999): 475. Goldfarb, Lisa. "FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE: A MUSICAL READING OF VALÉRY'S 'PROFUSION DE SOIR." Romanic Review 91.4 (Nov. 2000): 459. Martens, Lorna. "`Der Schwung der Figur'; Rilke's debt to Valery." Comparative Literature 47.3 (Summer95 1995): 215. Ryan, Paul. "'L'ICI EST LE MOI DE L'ESPACE': SELF, GENESIS, AND THE SPACE OF WRITING IN VALÉRY'S CAHIERS." Modern Language Review 97.3 (July 2002): 553-565. Sadek, Walid. "Seeing Rude and Erudite." Third Text 21.3 (May 2007): 257-265. Samson, Steven Alan. "Paul Valery: The politics of method." Modern Age 36.1 (Fall93 1993): 6. |
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Hugo :: Baudelaire :: Rimbaud :: Mallarmé :: Valéry :: Apollinaire :: Tzara :: Breton :: Aragon :: Eluard :: Desnos :: Home