BOO KS
131
APOLLINAIRE AND GEORGE
APOLLI NAI RE. By Marcel Adema, translated by Denise Folliot. Grove
Press. $3.50.
STEFAN GEORGE. By E. K. Bennett. Yale University Press. $2.50.
Both Guillaume Apollinaire and Stefan George came to liter–
ary maturity in the international poetic climate creatcd by the Symbolist
movement in the latter half of the nineteenth century. George was born
in 1865, and he was received, as a young man, at Mallarme's famous
Tuesday evenings at the rue de Rome. This French influence was de–
cisive for his development; and in an excellent poem cited by Mr. Ben–
nett, he records
hi~
debt to Mallarme, Villiers de L'Isle Adam and Ver–
laine. Apollinaire, born in 1880, was never a member of Mallarme's
inner circle; but his poems clearly show traces of Symbolist influence.
Like all literary movements, of course, Symbolism contained diverse
currents within itself. Edmund Wilson has distinguished the serious–
esthetic current of Mallarme, which always maintained a certain gran–
deur of tone, from the conversational-ironic current of LaForgue and
Corbiere. One might also distinguish a lyrical-pathetic current to char–
acterize Verlaine and one aspect of Rimbaud. Within this stylistic frame–
work, both Apollinaire and George chose the means that best corres–
ponded to their artistic needs and developed them in their own direction.
Apollinaire carried the conversational line of Symbolist style even
farther forward, abandoning punctuation altogether because, as he wrote
in a letter to Henri Martineau, "the very rhythm and division of the
lines are the real punctuation and nothing else is needed." At the same
time,
he
fused this casual style with lyric-pathetic themes of sentiment
and nostalgia, and with a very effective use of urban and traditionally
nonpoetic imagery. George, on the other hand, carried forward the ser–
ious-esthetic line of Mallarme and the Parnassians (his poetry resembles
the latter as much as the former), writing in a highly pictorial and
severely controlled manner. Even George's lyrics have a solemnity of
movement that has caused some German critics to accuse him of lacking
musicality. And George's overwhelming sense of his prophetic mission
certainly derived from the exalted conception of literature cherished
by Mallarme, although Mallarme's modesty never allowed him any il–
lusions as to the practical role his poetry and personality might allow
him to assume.
