la rage de l'expression

by Francis Ponge

In Mute Objects of Expression, Francis Ponge proclaims his to accept the challenge that things--objects-offer to language. These objects and scenes are perceived with unique Pongean art and humor in this volume centering on the unoccupied southern Loire countryside, where his family lived from 1940 to 1943. Because of wartime shortages, much of the book was drafted in a small notebook that made up his sole supply of paper. The poems recall the voices of Marianne Moore and William Carlos Williams and evoke the violent perfume of the mimosa, the cries of carnations, and the flirtations of wasps. He is moved to explore a shadowy town square glimpsed from a bus window. But "to conquer this landscape of Provence? That would be too much!" claimed Ponge. Mute Objects of Expression is one of Ponge's most important and beloved volumes.

Genres: Poetry, France, School, Literature

Hardcover

First published June 1, 1952

About the author

Francis Jean Gaston Alfred Ponge was a French essayist and poet. Influenced by surrealism, he developed a form of prose poem, minutely examining everyday objects.

Reviews

[ninon · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5
il est un peu comme moi il veut tout nommer tout decrire mais personne ne semble le comprendre .. sache que je te comprends moi francis

[Alice Rovani · Rating 2 out of 5]

quelle est cette obsession pour la serpillère provençale

[Dolf van der Haven · Rating 4 out of 5]

1974 Neustadt International Literature Prize
Where Rage against the machine rages against some unknown machine (society, I suppose), Francis Ponge was his time way ahead and raged against expression. He refused to be called a poet, because im his works he tried to liberate his subjects from poetry as it was understood back then (the 1940s in the case of the book). He chose natural subjects (a wasp, a flower, the sky over the Provence) and explored those subjects from all sorts of perspectives, opening up his methodology, hesitations and repetitive attempts to the reader. What results is about the hardest text I have ever read in French, full of neologisms and roundabout ways of touching upon his subjects.
Fortunately, I happened to have bought an edition prepared for high school students preparing for their literature exams, so there was plenty of guidance available to explain what was happening. Whether this resulted in any more pleasant reading is still the question, but this text will definitely stick with me for a while.

[Manel · Rating 3 out of 5]

T’as fumé quoi Francis? Non sérieux je vois ce que tu veux dire mais là le bac va me foudroyer

[Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best poetry books that enrich the poetic language with innovative themes. The inner sound of objects in nature stimulated Ponge to give it life.
I felt the breath of objects in this book.

[elle est au nord · Rating 5 out of 5]

j'adore Ponge et sa quête inaboutie et inaboutissable de trouver les mots, les formulations les plus adéquates et précises pour décrire. je trouve ça beau, essouflant parfois mais surtout fascinant.

[Keenan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I went into this thinking it would probably be a bit of a dumpster fire so it's nice to see my prejudices confirmed.

The works of Francis Ponge stirred my curiosity recently so I thought I'd give this a go. While he is certainly able to write well, this book shows not just his prose poems but his whole creative process in reaching them, including several entries lifted straight from the dictionary and several early drafts of each final version of prose. This would be great if the final output of all these sketches and drafts was extraordinary, but considering how middling many of them are, seeing the "man in action" is more excruciating than pleasant. Pompous and overblown nonsense.

[enillopa · Rating 5 out of 5]

J’AI ADORÉ!!!! Déjà que j’avais beaucoup apprécié le Parti pris des choses mais là Français Ponge nous explicite ses intentions et sa démarche et je trouve que cela change tout. Je ne suis pas particulièrement sensible à ses poèmes en temps que tels mais je trouve ses recherches sur les objets absolument formidables et il explore le lien que nous avons eux. Je suis totalement séduite pour sa quête et son travail.

[CX Dillhunt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best poetry book I've read in years! Phenomenal attention to technique. Prose & lyrical poetry meld!

[Александр Мурин · Rating 2 out of 5]

Je n’ai pas vraiment apprécié ce recueil. J’ai trouvé que les textes étaient souvent difficiles à comprendre et qu’ils demandaient beaucoup d’efforts pour saisir ce que l’auteur voulait exprimer. J’ai eu du mal à entrer dans l’univers de Ponge et à rester intéressé tout au long de la lecture.

Je reconnais l’originalité de son écriture et son travail sur le langage, mais ce style ne m’a pas convaincu. Les descriptions sont parfois trop longues et le rythme assez lent, ce qui a rendu la lecture moins agréable pour moi.

Ce livre plaira sûrement aux lecteurs qui aiment la poésie expérimentale, mais ce n’était tout simplement pas mon style. C’est le seul livre de cette année que je n’ai pas vraiment aimé.

[Melice · Rating 4 out of 5]

I expected this book to be terrible. Honestly, it was not that bad. Definitely wasn't the best book I've read, but it was fine. I kinda like the way he explained his writing process through his writing.

[camillon · Rating 4 out of 5]

en vrai trop fun

[Ines · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Cassie · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5/5

[Aurélia Riquet · Rating 3 out of 5]

Agréable surprise, un peu comme un manuel de poésie. Je devrais prendre exemple, prendre mon temps et réfléchir en écrivant

[Pauline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Une nouvelle approche de la poésie.

[Rosa · Rating 2 out of 5]

un seul mot : long

[Manon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Never again

[🍉 · Rating 1 out of 5]

traumatisant

[Antonomase · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read it for the high-schoolers, and gods I have no idea how I'm going to make them read it, or worse, work and analyze it.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

An attempt to assassinate poetry for the sake of the object. Which matters most ... object or subject? Thing or word? It or us? M. Ponge goes round and round ... but still manages to generate some pretty strong notions about the "nature" of wasps, birds, and pine forests. It's the method that matters, I guess.

[Ttoile · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Certes, nous n'avions pas besoin de cela (de voir si évidemment le ciel fermé) pour juger que Dieu est une invention ignoble, une insinuation détestable, une proposition malhonnête, une tentative hélas trop réussie d'effondrement des consciences humaines - et que les homme qui nous y inclinent sont des traîtres ou des imposteurs."

[Walter · Rating 4 out of 5]

An odd, in a good way, book of poems, phrases.

[margault ♡ · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF 0/5 c’était nul

[nini! ♡ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nunca había leído tan apasionadamente un libro de poesía. Te amo Ponge, a ti y a tu extraña manera de escribir.

[Eline Masson · Rating 5 out of 5]

on a piqué a la guêpe de et j'avoue avoir moins aimé la suite mais c'était quand même bien
4 ⭐

[old acc · Rating 3 out of 5]

Marking as dnf because I skimmed it, skipping over a lot. (I seem to do this with poetry often.) Maybe it's the translation, but other poems didn't pull me in like Snails did.