André BRETON
"Coqs de Bruyère" : poème autographe de jeunesse « et seront-ce coquetteries / de péril / ou de casques couleur de quetsche ? »
circa 1917-1918, 22,3x27,6, une feuille sous chemise et étui.
A remarkable poem of autograph youth by André Breton, entitled "Coqs de Bruyère", [] verse in black ink on laid paper, composed in. Our manuscript was written between March 1917 and the beginning of 1918.An essential poem of the pre-Dadaist contemporary of the author, it is part of a coherent set of seven manuscript poems by Breton (referred to as Coll.X. in
André Breton's Complete Works , Volume I of La Library of the Pleiades, Gallimard, 1988, 1071). These poems, from his youthful writing, are carefully calligraphed in black ink on watermarked laid paper. This set was sent to his circle of friends and writers, including Valery, Apollinaire, Theodore Fraenkel, and his brother André Paris. It was later published in his first collection,
Mont de Piété , which appeared in June 1919 at the publishing house Au sans Pareil, newly founded by his friend Rene Hilsum.
The exact dating of this set of autograph poems is determined by the writing of the last poem of the collection ("André Derain"), composed March 24, 1917, which offers a
terminus post quem absolute. In addition, an older version of the poem "Age", dedicated to Leon-Paul Fargue, appears in our collection under its original name "Poème". Dated by the author of February 19, 1916 - the day of his twenty years - and created 10 days earlier according to his correspondence, it was renamed and reworked only for its publication in July 1918 in
The Three Roses . In all likelihood prior to the publication of this last poem, the seven autograph poems, were probably written during 1917 or early 1918, while Breton continues his internship at the Val-de-Grace and makes the decisive meeting of Louis Aragon.
The poems that will constitute Mount of Piety represent a rare and precious testimony of his youthful influences, at the dawn of his adherence to the Dada movement and his discovery of automatic writing. Quite short and sometimes sibylline, we can see symbolic accents borrowed from Mallarme, which he rediscovers during poetic mornings at the Antoine theater, at the Vieux-Colombier, in the company of his high school classmate Théodore Fraenkel. During the first month of the war, Breton also devoted himself to Rimbaud, and immersed himself in
The Illuminations, the only work carried away in the confusion and haste that followed the declaration of war. From his Rimbaldian readings came the poems "December", "Age", and "André Derain", while he borrowed from Apollinaire his muse Marie Laurencin to whom he dedicates "The Sweet Year". Moreover, the poetic legacy of the author will be particularly marked by the figure of Paul Valéry, with whom he enters into correspondence in 1914. Valery plays in the writing of the poems of
Mont de Piété a considerable role by the attention and the advice he lavishes on the young poet. Admiring the audacity of his disciple, who addressed each of his poems, he appreciates the poem "Facon" (1916) in these terms: "
Theme, language, aim, metric, everything is new, future mode, way " ( Letter of June 1916,
Complete Works of André Breton , Volume I of The Library of the Pléiade, Gallimard, 1988, p.
These essential jewels of the youth of Breton were composed between his seventeenth and twenty-third year. Surprised in Lorient by the declaration of war, he became a military nurse, then officiated in several hospitals and on the front during the offensive of the Meuse. He made Nantes acquainted with Jacques Vaché, who inspired him with a project of collective writing, as well as the illustration of the future collection
Mont de Piété , finally realized by André Derain. The frequentation of this "revolted dandy against art and war", which shares his admiration for Jarry, and the contact of the lunatics of the neuro-psychiatric center of Saint-Dizier mark a decisive step in the genesis of surrealism. Assigned to the Val-de-Grâce from 1917, Breton finds in Paris the literary effervescence necessary for his poetic quest and recites Rimbaud in the company of Aragon. It was through Apollinaire that he became friends with Soupault, future co-author of the
Magnetic Fields , and Reverdy, founder of the magazine
Nord-Sud , which will publish poems of
Mont de Piété . The seven poems of the collection will later be published in avant-garde literary magazines (
The Three Roses ,
Solstices, North-South ) between 1917 and the beginning of the year 1919.
Four of the seven poems are dedicated to the author's masters and friends: Léon-Paul Fargue, and especially Apollinaire, to whom Breton had devoted a study in the
Fan . The author also pays tribute to Marie Laurencin and André Derain, creators of "still brand new plastic works, faced with an almost unanimous decree and intolerance", dear to Breton throughout his life (
twentieth century , no. 3, June 1952). He multiplies with these dedications cross allusions, dedicating to one a poem inspired by the other, the example of "December", dedicated to Apollinaire, which echoes Rimbaud and his poem "Dawn" (
The Illuminations, 1895).
A rare manuscript dating from the symbolist youth of André Breton, then "at the intellectual point of fusion [...] when the Rimbaud, Mallarmé, irreconcilable, are stuck in a poet" (Paul Valéry, letter of January 1916,
Complete Works André Breton , Volume I of The Library of the Pléiade, Gallimard, 1988, 1068).
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