Dreaming the Miracle: Three French Prose Poets: Max Jacob, Jean Follain, Francis Ponge

by Dennis Maloney (Editor), William Kulik (Translation), Beth Archer Brombert (Translation)

Baudelaire laid the foundations for prose poetry as a genre in the 19th century, but it wasn’t until the avant garde movement in the first half of the 20th century that the prose poem began a widespread emergence on the international scene. The three poets in this volume were major factors in this emergence. Max Jacob (1876–1944), a writer of surrealist cubist fables; Francis Ponge (1899–1988), a master of the language of things; and Jean Follain (1903–1971), who merged the everyday with the historical to create a world rich in anniversaries, lead us to the strong and growing interest in the genre that we find so prevalent at the beginning of the 21st century.

Genres: Poetry

192 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2002

Reviews

[Andrew]

Jacob and Follain stand out, and this anthology has led me to purchase single volumes of their work.

Ponge...well, perhaps someday I'll give him another shot with a new translator. Individual poems of his work here and there.

[Rauan]

anyone interested in prose poetry should get this book.... Ponge is not quite for me. But Follain and Jacob, quite differently, very much so.

And really nice introductions....

[David Grassé]

The prose-poems of Jean Follain made the whole book worth reading. Looking forward to reading more of his works.

[Shane Dupuy]

I don't know what these people are talking about. Ponge is incredible. Of course, Jacob is the most immediately accessible and fun.

[Brian Wasserman]

some ok pieces, it is good for scholarship, but the translations of the poems are not welldone

[Jason]

read Follain.