The Yale Anthology of Twentieth-Century French Poetry

Philippe Soupault 1897–1990

chavaille, france

S

oupault provided the first example of automatic writing in his Les

Champs magnétiques (1920), composed with André Breton in ten days

just before the summer of 1919. Guillaume Apollinaire introduced the

two after seeing Soupault’s first poem, ‘‘Départ,’’ which was written in a military

hospital and which the author claimed was dictated to him by his unconscious.

Breton, Soupault, and Aragon quickly united to begin the Surrealist revolution,

its advent marked by the publication of the review Littérature, which the writers,

often called ‘‘les trois mousquetaires,’’ cofounded in 1919; by September 1922

Soupault was the director of the journal. Between 1917 and 1919 he composed a

series of ‘‘cinematographic poems’’ and ‘‘animated snapshots,’’ both of which

express his visual approach to writing. He traveled widely beyond Paris, as indi-

cated by his celebrated title Westwego: he was in the United States in 1929 and

1931, in Russia in 1930, and in Germany and Scandinavia between 1932 and 1935.

After leaving Surrealism and its tight inner circles, he worked as a journalist but

was arrested in 1942 for his antifascist activities. Upon his release he was charged

with reorganizing Agence France-Presse in Latin America and worked for both

radio and UNESCO. His novel Les Dernières Nuits de Paris was translated into

English by William Carlos Williams in 1929. Principal works: Aquarium, 1917;

Rose des Vents, 1919; Les Champs magnétiques (with André Breton), 1920; L’Invita-

tion au suicide, 1921; Westwego, 1922; Georgia, 1926; Les Dernières Nuits de Paris,

1928; Il y un océan, 1936; Ode à Londres bombardé, 1944; Odes, 1946; L’Ame secrète,

1946; Message de l’île déserte, 1947; Chansons, 1949; Sans phrases, 1953; Arc en ciel,

1979; Poèmes retrouvés, 1982.

Georgia

I’m not sleeping Georgia
I’m shooting arrows into the night Georgia
I’m awaiting Georgia
I’m thinking Georgia