André BRETON writes Mallarmean poems. 1914.

André Breton (1896.1966)

Autograph manuscript.

One page in-4° on graph paper.

Slnd [Circa 1914]

Precious manuscript of this youthful poem with Mallarmean accents which will be published in 1919 in his collection Mont de Piété.

______________________________________________________

Green gold…

Sculpted for the purposes of dreams. Jean Royère.

Green gold the ripe grapes and my futile wishes

Are gorged with clarity so sweet that we are astonished.

To the ingenuous delight of tying your hair

More beautiful, to be envied than the monotonous azure,

I evoke you, worried about a power of cloak

Chimerical fairy in your footsteps on earth,

A little sad perhaps and rebellious rather

That all abandoned to the voluntary glaze.

Stupidly perjure the promises of flowers,

Your collar tapers, decorated with foliage by the trellis.

It seems, to see your hands, that they embroider colorfully

Of foliage a silk where you blend in, the same.

I feel how distant you are from me and that your eyes,

Azure, your jewels of shadow and the stars of dawn

Will fade away, captives of the boring warble

How soon your whim of dress would appear.

For Ariadne.

______________________________________________________

Loved by poetry and influenced by Mallarmé in the writing of his first verses, Breton quickly saw himself torn by the modernity of Rimbaud and Apollinaire whom he admired. In 1914, he sent the poet Jean Royère, director of the magazine La Phalange, a series of poems.