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Acolyte, v. 3, issue 1, whole no. 9, Winter 1945
Page 7
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and lulls... The material form of Edgar Poe corresponds exactly to the forms of his ideas; with other poets it would be pretentious and puerile, with him it is magical." Can we not imagine here phrases going back to the charm of certain poems by Verlaine? And, when one considers that the who wrote them was a constant companion of Verlaine, one cannot fail to think that Armand Renaud aided the author of Saturnian Poems to grasp the magic secret of Poe. In any case, it cannot be doubted that Renaude, through his article and conversations, made another member of the group, Leon Dierx, ready to submit to Poe's influence. Renaud had in his article strongly praised one of Poe's prose poems, "Shadow". Dierx took up the theme in his "This Evening". Around him, as around Poe, beloved dead rise up; they are there, very close, and inspire him in simultaneously attraction and a divine terror. It is death, as in Poe's work, who speaks with their voice: As through a triple and magic crown,-- O night, O solitude, O silence--my soul Through you, this evening, near the dark hearth, Gazes beyond the doors of the tomb. This evening, full of the horror of the assailed loser, I feel the dear dead surge up around me. Their eyes, as if to read the depth of my fright, Shine plainly in the trembling silence. Behind me, this evening, someone is there, very close. I know he is watching me, and I feel him touching me. This anguish! He is there, behind my shoulder. If I turned about, I should die on the spot! From the depth of another life, a far distant voice This evening has spoken my name, O terror! And that noise That I hear--O silence, O solitude, O night-- Seems to have one been born with humankind. That poem is frankly Poe-esque. In another selection, carrying one of Poe's titles--Shadow, are many similar reminders of the American author. These, however, are simple curiosities, rather than incidents of literary history. Dierx seems particularly important as an intermediary between Poe and Verlaine. The passage in which the latter gives homage to Dierx will be recalled, "...these scraps in which the rhyme returns without monotony, an entirely new form. Baudelaire borrowed from Poe the reiteration of the verse, but limited himself to making a refrain come back at the same place; while Dierx brings forth, like truant scholars, several rhymes in the same poem, like an improvisor at the piano who lets several notes wander. That appreciation is unjustly severe to Poe and Baudelaire, as it is unjustly favorable to Dierx. Dierx, like Poe, places in each strophe a certain number of repetitions at fixed spots, and adds, exactly like Poe in The Raven, some whimsical repetitions. In The Dream of Death--fantastic like Poe's--Dierx takes up at the fifth verse the word that forms the rhyme in the first, and at the sixth, that of the second. But it is the only rule that he utilizes; sometimes he takes up only the word of the rhyme, and sometimes the whole verse; sometimes too, and in an unexpected way, a repetition is found from one strophe to another: An angel on my forehead unfolded its great wing, A shadow slowly fell upon my eyes. -- 7 --
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and lulls... The material form of Edgar Poe corresponds exactly to the forms of his ideas; with other poets it would be pretentious and puerile, with him it is magical." Can we not imagine here phrases going back to the charm of certain poems by Verlaine? And, when one considers that the who wrote them was a constant companion of Verlaine, one cannot fail to think that Armand Renaud aided the author of Saturnian Poems to grasp the magic secret of Poe. In any case, it cannot be doubted that Renaude, through his article and conversations, made another member of the group, Leon Dierx, ready to submit to Poe's influence. Renaud had in his article strongly praised one of Poe's prose poems, "Shadow". Dierx took up the theme in his "This Evening". Around him, as around Poe, beloved dead rise up; they are there, very close, and inspire him in simultaneously attraction and a divine terror. It is death, as in Poe's work, who speaks with their voice: As through a triple and magic crown,-- O night, O solitude, O silence--my soul Through you, this evening, near the dark hearth, Gazes beyond the doors of the tomb. This evening, full of the horror of the assailed loser, I feel the dear dead surge up around me. Their eyes, as if to read the depth of my fright, Shine plainly in the trembling silence. Behind me, this evening, someone is there, very close. I know he is watching me, and I feel him touching me. This anguish! He is there, behind my shoulder. If I turned about, I should die on the spot! From the depth of another life, a far distant voice This evening has spoken my name, O terror! And that noise That I hear--O silence, O solitude, O night-- Seems to have one been born with humankind. That poem is frankly Poe-esque. In another selection, carrying one of Poe's titles--Shadow, are many similar reminders of the American author. These, however, are simple curiosities, rather than incidents of literary history. Dierx seems particularly important as an intermediary between Poe and Verlaine. The passage in which the latter gives homage to Dierx will be recalled, "...these scraps in which the rhyme returns without monotony, an entirely new form. Baudelaire borrowed from Poe the reiteration of the verse, but limited himself to making a refrain come back at the same place; while Dierx brings forth, like truant scholars, several rhymes in the same poem, like an improvisor at the piano who lets several notes wander. That appreciation is unjustly severe to Poe and Baudelaire, as it is unjustly favorable to Dierx. Dierx, like Poe, places in each strophe a certain number of repetitions at fixed spots, and adds, exactly like Poe in The Raven, some whimsical repetitions. In The Dream of Death--fantastic like Poe's--Dierx takes up at the fifth verse the word that forms the rhyme in the first, and at the sixth, that of the second. But it is the only rule that he utilizes; sometimes he takes up only the word of the rhyme, and sometimes the whole verse; sometimes too, and in an unexpected way, a repetition is found from one strophe to another: An angel on my forehead unfolded its great wing, A shadow slowly fell upon my eyes. -- 7 --
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