I had read nothing of Apollinaire's work until I read this, translated by Martin Sorrell who also provides a useful introduction and notes. I think I might have found a new favourite poet. Admittedly Sorrell might have collected only the best and what remains outside this selection may not match the quality of the work within it. Sorrell hints this might be the case in his introduction.

This edition has the French original opposite the English translation, which I like. And though my French is rusty and almost forgotten it did allow me to look at the original whenever I felt the need to check.

Apollinaire was an early proponent of modernism in French. I am still uncertain about what modernism actually means. I have a vague idea but sometimes I think these terms are sent to try us. Often having as broad an application as to be meaningless. That though is a discussion for another time.

His two most famous collections are Alcools and Calligrammes*, although he's also known for his war poetry. He served as in both the artillery and infantry in the French army during World War One. He was severely wounded in the head in 1916 by shrapnel and the consequences of that wound would kill him in 1918. His war poetry is very different to English war poetry. They mix love, sex and war together in a way that English war poets mostly don't. It's almost as if they want to be the Frenchest of French war poems - if you're looking at it from an English point of view. But there is a real beauty to them.

But this whole collection is filled with gems, especially some of the longer poems. I'd probably say more but it is late and I am tired. Perhaps I'll tweak this in the morning. Perhaps I won't.



*Calligrammes are poems that use the topography of the page to be both poems and illustrations. Although not all the poems in Calligrammes are actually calligrammes.