Louis ARAGON – Autograph poem from his youth – “Fugue” 1919.

Louis ARAGON (1897-1982)

Autograph manuscript – Fugue.

One page in-8°. Typographer's grease pencil.

Slnd [1919]

An extraordinary early manuscript, Fugue was included in Louis Aragon's first collection of poems, Feu de joie (1920). This fair copy was entrusted to his publisher, to whom he suggested, in the margin, the calligraphy of an initial letter. A rare and remarkable testament to the original work of one of the masters of French poetry.

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Fugue

A joy bursts forth in three

measured times of the lyre

Joy bursts forth in the woods

that I couldn't say

Turn heads, turn laughter

for whose love

For the love of what? 

for love of myself

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Aragon's first collection of poetry, Feu de joie, was published in January 1920 by Au sans pareil . Composed of twenty-three poems, the book opens with a cubist frontispiece by Pablo Picasso.

Drawing inspiration from various sources, including Rimbaud, Lautréamont, Breton, and Dadaism, Aragon developed free verse (sometimes described as "literary cubism") in his earliest writings, using it to enhance the sound of words. Infused with the fervor of the post-war period and a certain quest for modernism, these early texts were universally acclaimed.