The publishing house Les Belles Lettres de Paris offers us all at once five very beautifully crafted books, under a clear cover, fluffy cardboard, flaps, with embossed and silver illustrations taken from theHerbarium by Emily Dickinson.
Christina rossetti
Very strange volume that this one which contains, in fact, only one poem by Rossetti entitled “The market of the elves”, which extends on barely 19 pages, recounting the descent towards the death of a young girl seduced by the “Goblins” who offer her harmful fruits, and who will be saved by her sister. The remainder of the volume is first devoted to a very interesting presentation by Virginia Woolf. This text is followed by a foray into the life of the brother poet and painter, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and his muses, to end with poems by Elizabeth Eleanor Siddal, formerly a lover.
Patrick Reumaux dwells on what is more anecdotal, more salacious in the mores of the time. The great advantage is that this approach provides an overview, very enriching social facts. But what remains of Christina Rossetti is very little, perhaps this line: “In a honeyed voice, the cat purred. “
Walt whitman
What should be remembered from Whitman is above all this happy practice of the verse, a long litanic and prosaic verse which unfolds and gives rise to an unconstrained poetry, of which the subject no longer has to be expressly the height of soul, but sometimes the satisfaction of the male body, or a revolt calling for social equality. Those Grass leaves are beautifully accompanied by illustrations by Margaret C. Cook, showing naked riverside men, opulent women or mothers attentive to their babies.
This work by Whitman from 1855 is presented by its preface Roger Asselineau as one of the great American masterpieces, innovator. Homosexual impulses, in an unthinkable time, have greatly disturbed his balance. The work would be the privileged place for these desires to be fulfilled. “I sing the self” he writes in a poem and, in a complete part of his work, he proposes a “Song of myself”, to access the truth of a human being, put into words.
We find this quintessence in the poem “To a prostitute”: “Do not be troubled – be at ease with me – I am Walt Whitman, as liberal and robust as Nature, // As long as the waters will not refuse to shine for you nor leaves to rustle for you, my words will not refuse to shine and rustle for you. »Attractive modernity of poetic expression.
William blake
Published on the left page in block letters, the poems are confronted with English facsimiles by Blake himself, almost esoteric engravings and drawings, carrying within them the ultimate aspiration to the afterlife in this poet who believes in the imagination. Jean-Yves Masson, preface of Songs of innocence and experience, insists on the opening to the unconscious of a work which “passes above all by the dream”. It is not a question here of judging a poetry with old-fashioned accents, but of giving an account of an edition which allows access to a revealing object in a manner close to an act of faith, because “Everything that which arises from mortal birth / Must be consumed with the earth / To be resuscitated delivered from begetting ”.
Emily dickinson
Let us say at the outset that apart from the very beauty of Emily Dickinson’s poems, theSelf-portrait with a wrenproposed in this collection offers 23 color plates from theHerbarium of the poet. This book is a very beautiful object. In “A marble tea”, the title of his preface, Patrick Reumaux is sober and efficient. Additionally, he adds some insightful remarks throughout Emily Dickinson’s correspondence with sisters Norcross (little cousins) and TW Higginson. Reumaux insists that “his letters, of course […] are poems ”. We can only comply if we trust this powerful sentence taken from a letter of 1861 concerning flowers: “the shadow has no stem, they could not pluck it”. Note that the letters to Higginson are themselves riddled with poems. Reumaux insists that the poems chosen, Glory is one Bee, 1858-1881, “show […] that what is called poetry is an extremely rare and vital thing. Something you can’t live without. And who helps to die. Here is a strong poetic proposition offered to curiosity.
The Brontë family
Book for enthusiasts of Sisters and Brother Brontë, this Underworld is dedicated to them. Patrick Reumaux, again, gives us back what remains of this colossal and lost work of the siblings. Only survive Poems and prose by Gondal and Angria, which have been returned to us with many comments.
These are youthful works, coming from a game, which culminated in the writing of a mirror world, “below” the title, where we love each other, fight, betray each other, like it should be.
These lines by Charlotte Brontë, “No more sighing – it’s a dream / So vivid that it looks like life”, set the tone and the essence of the company. The iconography is remarkable and the whole of this book gives to read the poems inserted in the narrative prose which contained them, often reflecting the confusion of the characters.