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Poems of Paris
A beautiful hardcover Pocket Poets anthology of poems from across the ages inspired by the City of Light.
Perhaps no other European city has so captured the poetic imagination as has Paris. Poems of Paris covers a wide range of time, from the Renaissance to the present, and includes not only the pantheon of classic French poets, from Ronsard to Baudelaire to Mallarmé, but also tributes by visitors to the city and famous expatriates from all over the world, including Pablo Neruda, Samuel Beckett, Rainer Maria Rilke, Vladimir Nabokov, Zelda Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Charles Bukowski, and many more. All the famous sights of Paris are touched on here, from Notre-Dame to the Eiffel Tower, as are such classic Parisian themes as food, drink, and love, and famous events from the Revolution to the Resistance.
Perhaps no other European city has so captured the poetic imagination as has Paris. Poems of Paris covers a wide range of time, from the Renaissance to the present, and includes not only the pantheon of classic French poets, from Ronsard to Baudelaire to Mallarmé, but also tributes by visitors to the city and famous expatriates from all over the world, including Pablo Neruda, Samuel Beckett, Rainer Maria Rilke, Vladimir Nabokov, Zelda Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Charles Bukowski, and many more. All the famous sights of Paris are touched on here, from Notre-Dame to the Eiffel Tower, as are such classic Parisian themes as food, drink, and love, and famous events from the Revolution to the Resistance.
256 pages, Hardcover
Published March 12, 2019
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March 20, 2024
Paris is beyond compare
You don’t know nights of love? Don’t
petals of soft words float upon your blood?
Are there no places on your dear body
that keep remembering like yes?
(Paris, Summer 1909, Rainer Maria Rilke)
I love Paris. And I love poetry. So what else would you expect me to do after reading this lovely, lovely anthology which combines both Paris and poetry from cover to cover than sing its praise, as it hit the mark in every respect?
Streets, people, parks, monuments, artists, ideas, revolution, war, liberation, love, exile, the poems Emily Fragos comprised in this collection range widely over time (from the 14th to the 21th century) and themes, juxtaposing French poets in translation with poems written by the motley crew of poets from all over the world who descended on Paris for short or longer periods of time, living there in exile or by choice or just dropping by as a tourist - all united by their experience of Paris, imagined and/or real.
From frivolous (Zelda Fitzgerald) to bitter (James Fenton, In Paris with you), from erotic (Andre Breton, Free Union) to elegiac (Tristan Tzara, The death of Guillaume Apollinaire), covering art, revolution, war (Paul Eluard, Curfew), bringing homage to composers (Frank O’Hara, Poulenc), artists and poets (René Char, Max Jacob), expressing joie de vivre (Sara Teasdale, Paris in Spring and grief, ranging from fourteen words (Ezra Pound, In the station of the métro), haiku (Richard Wright) to prose poem, the variety of themes, poetic forms and tones kept on surprising and enchanting me.
Re-reading the poems I had marked when I was reading the collection the first time in order to select a couple for sharing here to give an idea of the width and range of the collection, I had the intention to make a list of ten favourite ones to which I would add a little note each. I ended up with a list of thirty poems and a nagging inability to choose. There is Rilke, of course. And Paul Éluard. Prévert, Prévert and more Prévert (did I already mention Prévert?). The selection of French surrealists and kindred spirits (Desnos, Breton, Soupault, Éluard, Tzara, Apollinaire) in the chapter dedicated to love struck me as outstandingly beautiful (I also enjoyed the corresponding surreal feeling of reading them in English translations). Paris approached from the perspective of poets in exile or washed ashore in Paris from abroad draws different colours and views on the city than the average romantic or swooning tourist (like yours truly) is capable of – evoking melancholy, loss, loneliness as well as city’s spellbinding lure (Marina Tsvetaeva, Vladimir Nabokov, Osip Mandelstam, Adam Zagajewski, César Vallejo, Pablo Neruda, Rita dove, Oscar Wilde, Czeslaw Milosz, Leopold Sédar Senghor (In memoriam). The dazzling cosmopolitism of the collection make me curious to find out more about each poet’s relationship with Paris and about their time spent there, wondering if they all have effectively been there, wondering for instance if the Paris Nazim Hikmet evokes so stunningly in his poem Before the time runs out, my rose arose purely from his imagination of the city or from memories on it.
All strangers love her, will always find her fair,
because such elegance, such happiness,
will not be found in any town but this:
Paris is beyond compare.
Maybe the words Eustache Deschamps wrote on Paris in the 14th century are still valid?
Having already spent many a delightful hour savouring these poems, I feel fortunate I’ll have the chance to keep this book company when it will travel to Paris next September.
You don’t know nights of love? Don’t
petals of soft words float upon your blood?
Are there no places on your dear body
that keep remembering like yes?
(Paris, Summer 1909, Rainer Maria Rilke)
I love Paris. And I love poetry. So what else would you expect me to do after reading this lovely, lovely anthology which combines both Paris and poetry from cover to cover than sing its praise, as it hit the mark in every respect?
Streets, people, parks, monuments, artists, ideas, revolution, war, liberation, love, exile, the poems Emily Fragos comprised in this collection range widely over time (from the 14th to the 21th century) and themes, juxtaposing French poets in translation with poems written by the motley crew of poets from all over the world who descended on Paris for short or longer periods of time, living there in exile or by choice or just dropping by as a tourist - all united by their experience of Paris, imagined and/or real.
From frivolous (Zelda Fitzgerald) to bitter (James Fenton, In Paris with you), from erotic (Andre Breton, Free Union) to elegiac (Tristan Tzara, The death of Guillaume Apollinaire), covering art, revolution, war (Paul Eluard, Curfew), bringing homage to composers (Frank O’Hara, Poulenc), artists and poets (René Char, Max Jacob), expressing joie de vivre (Sara Teasdale, Paris in Spring and grief, ranging from fourteen words (Ezra Pound, In the station of the métro), haiku (Richard Wright) to prose poem, the variety of themes, poetic forms and tones kept on surprising and enchanting me.
Re-reading the poems I had marked when I was reading the collection the first time in order to select a couple for sharing here to give an idea of the width and range of the collection, I had the intention to make a list of ten favourite ones to which I would add a little note each. I ended up with a list of thirty poems and a nagging inability to choose. There is Rilke, of course. And Paul Éluard. Prévert, Prévert and more Prévert (did I already mention Prévert?). The selection of French surrealists and kindred spirits (Desnos, Breton, Soupault, Éluard, Tzara, Apollinaire) in the chapter dedicated to love struck me as outstandingly beautiful (I also enjoyed the corresponding surreal feeling of reading them in English translations). Paris approached from the perspective of poets in exile or washed ashore in Paris from abroad draws different colours and views on the city than the average romantic or swooning tourist (like yours truly) is capable of – evoking melancholy, loss, loneliness as well as city’s spellbinding lure (Marina Tsvetaeva, Vladimir Nabokov, Osip Mandelstam, Adam Zagajewski, César Vallejo, Pablo Neruda, Rita dove, Oscar Wilde, Czeslaw Milosz, Leopold Sédar Senghor (In memoriam). The dazzling cosmopolitism of the collection make me curious to find out more about each poet’s relationship with Paris and about their time spent there, wondering if they all have effectively been there, wondering for instance if the Paris Nazim Hikmet evokes so stunningly in his poem Before the time runs out, my rose arose purely from his imagination of the city or from memories on it.
All strangers love her, will always find her fair,
because such elegance, such happiness,
will not be found in any town but this:
Paris is beyond compare.
Maybe the words Eustache Deschamps wrote on Paris in the 14th century are still valid?
Having already spent many a delightful hour savouring these poems, I feel fortunate I’ll have the chance to keep this book company when it will travel to Paris next September.
July 6, 2024
J’adore Paris. I have travelled extensively around the world, but this is one city I never tire of visiting:
Go where I may
I miss the old banks of the Seine
(“Paris”, by Francois Coppée)
I am indebted to a friend who recommended this pocket-size anthology of poetry dedicated to the city of light and love. It has gone straight to my ‘favourites’ list and will accompany me on all current and future trips to Paris.
Authors include the great and good of the literary world, especially the Lost Generation. The book is awe-inspiring. The quality of poetry is sublime. Take this example, “Montmartre”, by Langston Hughes. In thirteen words, it encapsulates everything about Paris:
Pigalle:
A neon rose
In a champagne bottle.
At dawn
The petals
Fall.
Corbières stated, “It is not a city, it is a world,” a sentiment I thoroughly endorse. The selection of poetry contained herein is often achingly beautiful and completely breathtaking. Prévert’s “Paris at Night” and “The Garden” are exquisite, as is Desnos’ “I have dreamed of you so much”.
As expected, the collection adroitly captures the stereotypical sights, sounds, bright lights and beauty. Still, it pays equal homage to the city’s darker, more sombre, melancholic, grimy and often salacious side.
“ … we parted
The way we deserved to, really, in a
filthy café
surrounded by ghosts and cigarette butts,
mixing our pitiful kisses with night’s undertow.”
(Le Dôme, Montparnasse, by Julio Cortázar)
Meanwhile, the Seine flows relentlessly, oblivious to the thousands of lovers and dreamers who have lost their hearts to Paris and its charms and who pine to be reunited in the rain one distant day ...
Go where I may
I miss the old banks of the Seine
(“Paris”, by Francois Coppée)
I am indebted to a friend who recommended this pocket-size anthology of poetry dedicated to the city of light and love. It has gone straight to my ‘favourites’ list and will accompany me on all current and future trips to Paris.
Authors include the great and good of the literary world, especially the Lost Generation. The book is awe-inspiring. The quality of poetry is sublime. Take this example, “Montmartre”, by Langston Hughes. In thirteen words, it encapsulates everything about Paris:
Pigalle:
A neon rose
In a champagne bottle.
At dawn
The petals
Fall.
Corbières stated, “It is not a city, it is a world,” a sentiment I thoroughly endorse. The selection of poetry contained herein is often achingly beautiful and completely breathtaking. Prévert’s “Paris at Night” and “The Garden” are exquisite, as is Desnos’ “I have dreamed of you so much”.
As expected, the collection adroitly captures the stereotypical sights, sounds, bright lights and beauty. Still, it pays equal homage to the city’s darker, more sombre, melancholic, grimy and often salacious side.
“ … we parted
The way we deserved to, really, in a
filthy café
surrounded by ghosts and cigarette butts,
mixing our pitiful kisses with night’s undertow.”
(Le Dôme, Montparnasse, by Julio Cortázar)
Meanwhile, the Seine flows relentlessly, oblivious to the thousands of lovers and dreamers who have lost their hearts to Paris and its charms and who pine to be reunited in the rain one distant day ...
November 18, 2022
I liked this collection, in part because it took me back to my visit to Paris earlier this year. I actually visited the graves of a few the poets who are included here, and it also introduced me to some French poets that I’d never come across, as well as reminding me of some English ones who I hadn’t read for a while.
To be honest, my only real complaint about this one would be that translating poems from French into English doesn’t always work as well as you might hope for. That’s especially true when the translator has tried to retain the rhyming scheme, because I don’t see how they can stay true to the poem while also finding words that maintain the same meaning but happen to rhyme.
Overall though, it was a pretty decent collection, as all of these Everyman Collections is. It also contains a nice cross section of poetry, with Verlaine and Bukowski appearing within a couple of pages of one another. It also has plenty of English language poets, which I guess is fair because otherwise it might as well have been Poems of France.
If you’re looking for a nice little pocket-sized collection that you can carry around with you and dip in and out of, this is the book for you. I’m glad that I picked it up, especially because I found it cheap in a charity shop.
To be honest, my only real complaint about this one would be that translating poems from French into English doesn’t always work as well as you might hope for. That’s especially true when the translator has tried to retain the rhyming scheme, because I don’t see how they can stay true to the poem while also finding words that maintain the same meaning but happen to rhyme.
Overall though, it was a pretty decent collection, as all of these Everyman Collections is. It also contains a nice cross section of poetry, with Verlaine and Bukowski appearing within a couple of pages of one another. It also has plenty of English language poets, which I guess is fair because otherwise it might as well have been Poems of France.
If you’re looking for a nice little pocket-sized collection that you can carry around with you and dip in and out of, this is the book for you. I’m glad that I picked it up, especially because I found it cheap in a charity shop.
March 16, 2020
If I could give this six stars, I would! Beautiful collection with a variety of themes, poets, and styles that all manage to evoke Paris without any of the clichés.
December 12, 2019
“Poems are never completed, they are only abandoned“ Poems of Paris will never be completed for anyone who is simply in love with the idea of the City of light, its atmosphere and energy. Full of autumn colors, creps smell, freedom sign, luxury vitrine and cultural european birth. Personal reborn, eternal return.
December 5, 2024
i love reading poetry about places i’m in
May 7, 2022
This book purchased last spring, of course not like any story book you can finish. Since living in Paris this book of poems is. Not only romantic and real, it collects so many poems of different aspects of living in Paris. Poems on food, poems on the rues of paris, poems of people, poems of the street. Though most of the poems are read at home, I could instantly be in that jarden or rue and feel the words written. When reading this in jarden it felt as if the poet is reciting it to me then and there. I mostly loved poems about the streets and on food. Surely this book is a lovely gift for anyone who lives/loves Paris or just the poems.
October 16, 2021
What a lovely small book, both the book cover design as well as the content. I've borrowed this from library, just can't wait to read them one by one at night, when finished, I knew I need to buy one as my lifetime companion.
November 23, 2025
I would give this 2.5. Too many miserable poems by cynical men banging on about alcohol, whores, dirt, prostitutes and brothels. And one nasty reductive poem about women’s body parts that was particularly repellent. It was saved by a few more enjoyable poems about other aspects of life, otherwise I might not have finished. More female poets please.
Want to read
December 4, 2021
April 27, 2023
borrowed from my friend to read as we traveled France. absolutely a right time right place read for my life. o the loneliness, o the rain!!! o the beauty.
definitely will be seeking out more books in this series
definitely will be seeking out more books in this series
March 8, 2024
Always enjoy the books in this series, this one was no exception. I picked it up after visiting Paris last summer and it was a good read to revisit the city. Beautifully made books and the perfect size, all of these in the Everyman's Pocket Poets Series are recommended.
July 7, 2020
It has taken me SO long to finish this because I just really didn’t like it. Would have also liked to see some more women poets...
October 9, 2020
"I descended toward the Seine, shy, a traveler,
A young barbarian just come to the capital of the
world." Czeslaw Milosz
A young barbarian just come to the capital of the
world." Czeslaw Milosz
August 2, 2023
Paris, I love you but you’re bringing me down.
January 5, 2025
A lovely collection, but like a lot of Everyman poetry collections, there are not enough female poets here.
May 6, 2021
This book was really really raunchy and it made me really uncomfortable. Yes, it’s a European book, but just the way they described sexual aspects wasn’t in any way of admiration of beauty.
December 10, 2024
A beautiful, well-structured and well-rounded poetry collection. Spanning centuries of poetic imagination, this little books features poems on love, war, revolution, nostalgia, travel, the arts, the city and its streets and sights and monuments and place amid history. Paris herself becomes a breathing living being. One to be honoured and appreciated and revered for her beauty and intelligence, but she is not without her secrets, dirty unattractive streets and smells, tyranny, politics, prostitutes and drunkenness. This collection of poems shows you both sides of Paris; both personalities; all seasons.
From the Foreword: "People of all sorts parade through these poems: the young and the old, artists and muses, vagabonds and lovers...The City of Light has long been an inspiration and a refuge for artists from all around the world...the Lost Generation of writers..."the capital of public kissing" [Billy Collins]...the dream that is Paris."
I bought this little collection before visiting Paris for the first time myself. It truly was a magical place and I wanted to read in the Luxembourg gardens forever, in the dappled sunlight and rainbows after gentle showers in the Spring.
Some of my favourites came from Charles Baudelaire, particularly his poem 'Be Drunk'.
Some other quotes that were memorable:
"leaky roofs, dripping walls, slippery cobblestones, worn-out pavements, gutters overflowing with sewers - That's how my route lies ahead, with Paradise at its end." (Paul Verlaine)
"It's not a city, it's a world." (Tristan Corbiere)
"I descended toward the Seine, shy, a traveler, a young barbarian just come to the capital of the world...the city behaved in accordance with its nature...baking long breads and pouring wine into clay pitchers, buying fish, lemons and garlic in street markets..." (Czeslaw Milosz)
"I have dreamed of you so much you are no longer real." (Robert Desnos)
Another favourite -
In Paris with you:
"Don't talk to me of love. I've had an earful and I get tearful when I've downed a drink or two. I'm on of your talking wounded. I'm a hostage. I'm marooned. But I'm in Paris with you...
Do you mind if we do not go to the Louvre, if we say sod off to the sodding Notre Dame, if we skip the Champ Elysees and remain here in this sleazy
old hotel room, doing this and that, to what and whom, learning who you are, learning what I am.
Don't talk to me of love. Let's talk about Paris, the little bit of Paris in our view, there's that crack across the ceiling and the hotel walls are peeling and I'm in Paris with you.
Don't talk to me of love. Let's talk of Paris. I'm in Paris with the slightest thing you do, with your eyes, your mouth...with all points south, Am I embarrassing you? I'm in Paris with you." (James Fenton)
Drawing on the notion that Paris is a state of mind rather than a physical place.
"My city is geography, the street is called 'I go' and the number 'Not to return'" (Pablo Neruda)
From the Foreword: "People of all sorts parade through these poems: the young and the old, artists and muses, vagabonds and lovers...The City of Light has long been an inspiration and a refuge for artists from all around the world...the Lost Generation of writers..."the capital of public kissing" [Billy Collins]...the dream that is Paris."
I bought this little collection before visiting Paris for the first time myself. It truly was a magical place and I wanted to read in the Luxembourg gardens forever, in the dappled sunlight and rainbows after gentle showers in the Spring.
Some of my favourites came from Charles Baudelaire, particularly his poem 'Be Drunk'.
Some other quotes that were memorable:
"leaky roofs, dripping walls, slippery cobblestones, worn-out pavements, gutters overflowing with sewers - That's how my route lies ahead, with Paradise at its end." (Paul Verlaine)
"It's not a city, it's a world." (Tristan Corbiere)
"I descended toward the Seine, shy, a traveler, a young barbarian just come to the capital of the world...the city behaved in accordance with its nature...baking long breads and pouring wine into clay pitchers, buying fish, lemons and garlic in street markets..." (Czeslaw Milosz)
"I have dreamed of you so much you are no longer real." (Robert Desnos)
Another favourite -
In Paris with you:
"Don't talk to me of love. I've had an earful and I get tearful when I've downed a drink or two. I'm on of your talking wounded. I'm a hostage. I'm marooned. But I'm in Paris with you...
Do you mind if we do not go to the Louvre, if we say sod off to the sodding Notre Dame, if we skip the Champ Elysees and remain here in this sleazy
old hotel room, doing this and that, to what and whom, learning who you are, learning what I am.
Don't talk to me of love. Let's talk about Paris, the little bit of Paris in our view, there's that crack across the ceiling and the hotel walls are peeling and I'm in Paris with you.
Don't talk to me of love. Let's talk of Paris. I'm in Paris with the slightest thing you do, with your eyes, your mouth...with all points south, Am I embarrassing you? I'm in Paris with you." (James Fenton)
Drawing on the notion that Paris is a state of mind rather than a physical place.
"My city is geography, the street is called 'I go' and the number 'Not to return'" (Pablo Neruda)
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews