The Anchor Anthology of French Poetry: From Nerval to Valery in English Translation Book

The title of this anthology, which is edited by Angel Flores, might give you the impression that this is an all-inclusive survey of every era, school, and movement of French poetry. That would be a gross misconception: in the introductory essays that precede each section of this book, Flores flaunts his ample scorn for the French Romanticism of Victor Hugo (which he calls "banal," "sentimental," "anti-intellectual," etc.) at the same time that he thoroughly ignores the Surrealism of Paul Eluard and Rene Char. Instead of an objective survey of the whole of French poetry, what Flores has produced is a deep and passionate examination of the oeuvres of a small handful of French poets, most of whom belonged to the literary movement known as Symbolism. Like Harold Bloom, Flores displays a keen interest in the intellectual parlor game of who-influenced-whom, and the poems he has selected for inclusion elucidate these chains of influence: for example, the reader is shown how Baudelaire influenced Mallarme, and how Mallarme in turn influenced Valery.

This book encompasses many treasures, including: almost all of Nerval's gorgeous "Les Chimeres" poems; a generous sampling of Rimbaud's prose poetry; the best-ever English translation of Apollinaire's masterpiece "La Chanson du mal-aime" (courtesy of translator Dudley Fitts, who, unlike many translators, maintains some semblance of the hypnotic rhyme scheme of the original); Valery's rhapsodic "Le Cimetiere marin" (from which the famous line "The sea, the sea!" originates); etc.