The Yale Anthology of Twentieth-Century French Poetry

part 1. 1897–1915: symbolism, post-symbolism, cubism, simultanism

after the religious form, as in Prose pour les morts) and his hypnotic,
emotional power had a decided influence not only on Apollinaire but on
English-language poets as well, from the Beats on. The interrelations of
prose and poetry are always to be reinvented and rethought. Particularly
in the early years of the century, the interrelating of genres provokes a
special excitement.

Note

1. Victor Segalen, Stèles (Paris: Gallimard, 1973), pp. 21–24. In a letter to Jules de
   Gaultier of February 3, 1913, Segalen says of these monument poems: ‘‘In this Chinese
   mold, I placed what I had to express’’ (p. 13). Timothy Billings and Christopher Bush have
   recently translated and commented upon these poems, at the time of this writing; their
   work is invaluable.