Morsel May Sleep

by Ellen Dillon

This book takes its starting point in Stéphane Mallarmé’s Thèmes anglais pour toutes les grammaires, a textbook of translation exercises that he devised during his time as a secondary school English teacher, that uses English proverbs to teach points of grammar. Beginning with found language from the English and French versions of a series of grammar exercises, the poems and prose poems wonder about, and wander about in, language as it comes alive (or fails to) in classrooms. It is a sort of Venn diagram of two books, with the central overlap in the found language from Mallarmé’s chosen proverbs and his own French translations of them. From that point, the book branches out into different shapes in each language, following sounds and associations as they emerge.

108 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2021

Reviews

[Kristen]

bref mais amusant et souvent frappant