Carnac: 9 (Bloodaxe Contemporary French Poets) - Softcover

Guillevic, Eugène

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1852243937 ISBN 13: 9781852243937

Publisher: Bloodaxe Books, 1999

Synopsis

Eugene Guillevic, who died in 1997, was one of France's most important contemporary poets. Dating from 1961, Carnac marks the beginning of Guillevic's mature life as a poet. A single poem divided into several parts, it evokes the rocky, sea-bound, unfinished landscape of Brittany with its sacred objects and its great silent sense of waiting. The texts are brief but have a grave, meditative serenity, as the poet seeks to effect balance and help us "to make friends with nature", as well as to live in a universe which is chaotic and often frightening. In this poetry of description -- where entire landscapes are built up from short, intense texts -- language is reduced to its essentials, as words are placed on the page "like a dam against time", and aspire to what John Montague calls their "mystic materialism".

About this title

About the Author:

One of France's most important contemporary poets, Eugene Guillevic (1907-1997) was born in Carnac in Brittany, and although he never learned the Breton language, his personality is deeply marked by his feeling of oneness with his homeland. His poetry has a remarkable unity, driven by his desire to use words to bridge a tragic gulf between man and a harsh and often apparently hostile natural environment. For Guillevic, the purpose of poetry is to arouse the sense of Being. In this poetry of description where entire landscapes are built up from short, intense texts language is reduced to its essentials, as words are placed on the page `like a dam against time'. When reading these poems, it is as if time is being stopped for man to find himself again.

About this edition

• Publisher: Bloodaxe Books
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 1852243937
• ISBN 13: 9781852243937
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 152