In an article on Alfred Jarry, whom Apollinaire met at one of these soirées, the latter wrote, “In the cellar in the Place Saint-Michel there were some delightful evenings, and a number of friendships had their beginnings there” (Steegmuller, 95). Salmon explained that in those days caveau maudit, perhaps a play on Verlaine’s reference to himself and his fellow poets as maudits (cursed), was a code word for poets’ bar. Years before, Verlaine had been present at these evenings. Apollinaire first attended one on April 25, 1903.

bad clothes: Salmon later said (in his book Souvenirs sans fin) that Apollinaire wore his worst clothes in order to make fun of the rampant bohemianism at the readings.

THE PONT MIRABEAU ↩

To hear Apollinaire read this poem, go to www.wiu.edu/Apollinaire/Apollinaire_recite_le_pont_Mirabeau.wav.

In France this is Apollinaire’s best-known poem, considered a classic. It was written in the wake of his breakup with Marie Laurencin, probably in late 1911 or early 1912. Its emotional force nothwithstanding, it was also a literary construct strongly influenced by a thirteenth-century poem called “Gaieté et Oriour” and by François Villon’s Testament (compare Apollinaire’s “Les jours s’en vont je demeure” with Villon’s “Allé s’en est et je demeure,” the latter translated by Galway Kinnell as “They have gone and I stay on.”)

Pont Mirabeau: This bridge, built 1895–97, was one that Apollinaire would have used on his way to and from his apartment in Auteuil, a neighborhood in the sixteenth arrondissement of Paris.

How slowly life goes / And how violently alive is hope: In the original, the play on vie est lente and violente in the lines Comme la vie est lente / Et comme l’Espérance est violente has challenged (and defeated) every translator of this poem, including me. A version such as “Life is vile and slow as lint / And Hope is violent” catches the wordplay but would grossly disfigure the poem.

POSTCARD ↩

This poem was sent as a postcard to André Rouveyre (1879–1962) on August 20, 1915, when Apollinaire was still in the artillery, a bit behind the front lines and thus able to take a relatively rosy view of the war. In November, when he had himself transferred into the infantry for trench warfare, his view quickly turned grim.

PRAYER ↩

My mother dressed me only in white and blue: In “Zone” the poet says, “Your mother dresses you in blue and white only.” There are photos of the young Guillaume and his little brother, Albert, dressed in white and blue sailor suits. These colors were associated with the Virgin Mary. At the time, the boys were attending the Collège de Saint-Charles, a Marianist school.

The sailor who was saved: Perhaps Apollinaire’s brother, who remained a dutiful Catholic.

THE PRETTY REDHEAD ↩

First published in March 1918 and probably written not long before, this poem serves as the culminating piece of Calligrammes, the last volume of poems Apollinaire published in his lifetime. In this poem the poet, addressing the public, looks to an adventurous future based on the orderly classicism of the past. That future is symbolized by the pretty redhead, whose real-life counterpart, though apparently a golden blonde, was Jacqueline Kolb, a nurse whom Apollinaire married in May 1918, only six months before his death at the age of thirty-eight. That the poem’s speaker begins boastfully and ends beseechingly perhaps reflects Apollinaire’s anticipation of having his book, and thus his whole aesthetic, rejected.

the mouth of God: Sidra, the angel of Order in caballistic lore, according to Scott Bates.

PROCESSION ↩

Léon Bailby: Bailby (1867–1954) was a journalist and the owner of the Parisian daily newspaper L’Intransigeant. The original publication of this poem had no dedicatee. Perhaps Apollinaire added it as a way of thanking the man who had given him a job. Eventually Apollinaire succeeded André Salmon as L’Intransigeant’s art critic. One could also speculate that it was because Bailby organized, in 1918, the first big annual charity event for tubercular children, the Bal des Petits Lits Blancs.

Tranquil bird: Apollinaire had read about such legendary creatures in Ferdinand Denis’s Le Monde enchanté, cosmographie et histoire naturelle fantastiques du Moyen Age.

second eyelid: In his L’Enchanteur pourrissant Apollinaire mentioned how eagles, when gazing into a dazzling light, lower their second eyelids.

oblong fire: According to Michel Décaudin, for Apollinaire the adjective oblong evoked a luminous trail, as in a graphic illustration of a comet.

Cornelius Agrippa: A native of Cologne, Agrippa (1486–1535) wrote a treatise on Saint Ursula, who, according to legend, had been martyred along with 11,000 virgins, which proved to Agrippa the theological and moral superiority of women, a view Apollinaire did not share.

THE SEASONS ↩

This poem was written in May 1915, when Apollinaire was in the artillery.

we were at the beach: Probably a reference to Apollinaire and André Rouveyre’s trip to Deauville, which is where they were when war was declared.

a toad’s tongue: Rouveyre had three pet frogs, named Do, Di, and Dé, which traveled with him. Apollinaire wrote an article about them in 1916.

Guy when he galloped along: Apollinaire’s first role in the artillery was delivering messages back and forth between the artillery emplacements and the officers somewhat farther behind the lines, for which he had received equestrian training. His lines were doubtless inspired by those of a children’s song that went “As-tu connu Pipo, Pipo / Quand il était militaire?”

artiman: The French word is artiflot, military slang for artilleryman, Apollinaire’s role before he volunteered for the trenches.

stew-pot shells: Apollinaire used the French military slang, marmites.

Aluminum shrapnel: As a way of passing time Apollinaire and his comrades used aluminum fragments from German artillery shells to make rings, which they sent back to their loved ones.

the Driver: The solider who drove the carriage and horses that pulled the cannons to new positions.

SHADOW ↩

Philippe Soupault recalled that Apollinaire wrote this poem at his request, taking about three hours, in 1917 or 1918, when Apollinaire was back in Paris, where he had been sent to recuperate from a head wound and where he did desk work for the military.

The olive of time: This metaphor is somewhat vague, though an image of peace (the olive) comes as no surprise in a poem written during a war. Apollinaire had written a novel called The Glory of the Olive (1901), most of which he lost. That title refers to a prediction that the heraldic motto of a future and peace-bringing pope will be “The Glory of the Olive.”

THE SONG OF THE BADLY LOVED ↩

This poem was inspired by Apollinaire’s unrequited love for Annie Playden (1880–1967), an English girl who was serving as the governess of the daughter of a German viscountess in the Rhineland, while Apollinaire was the tutor. At the end of their employ, Playden returned to her parents’ home in London, where Apollinaire visited her twice from Paris, in November 1903 and May 1904. Out of one of those visits came his poem “The Emigrant of Landor Road.” (The Playdens lived at 75 Landor Road.) In addition to several poems inspired by her in the Rhineland, he wrote the poem “Annie,” most likely after she immigrated to America in 1904.

In the 1960s the Apollinaire scholar Leroy Breunig invited Playden to New York for a conference at Barnard College, where he introduced me to her. She told me that she was still mildly baffled by recent attention, since she had no contact with Apollinaire after 1904 and had for many years remained unaware of his subsequent fame (and her own legendary status). I summoned my courage and asked her, in a lightly suggestive tone, if her young suitor had “behaved” himself, and she replied pleasantly, “He was a perfect gentleman.” The full story was far more nuanced.

Paul Léautaud: French writer, editor, and associate of Apollinaire. Léautaud (1872–1956) was the first publisher of this poem, in 1909.

And I sang...born again: This epigraph was added to the initial version that Apollinaire claims to have drafted in 1903.

The Red Sea: The miraculous parting of the waves of the Red Sea, as described in Exodus 14:21–30.

Ulysses: The Greek warrior-king (also known as Odysseus) who, after the ten-year Trojan War, wandered for ten more years before finding his way home, where his faithful wife, Penelope, awaited him.

Shakuntala: Both the Mahabharata and a fifth-century Indian play by Kalidasa tell the story of the beautiful Queen Shakuntala, who regains the love of her husband, King Dushyanta.

Sebaste: In AD 320 forty Roman soldiers (the Holy Forty) were martyred for their Christianity by being exposed naked on a frozen pond on an extremely cold night near Sebaste (Armenia). Their feast day in March leads up to Easter.

Canaan’s milky flow: The proverbial land of milk and honey, as described in Exodus 3:17.

Laetare: An office of the Catholic church, celebrated on the fourth Sunday in Lent, during which a rose is usually blessed. Laetare is Latin for “rejoice.”

Compleynts: An old (Middle English) word for poetic plaints, laments.

Hymns of slaves thrown to moray eels: It is said that whenever he was displeased with his slaves, the Roman official Publius Vedius Pollio (d. 15 BC) had them fed to lampreys.

Mausolus: Artemesia II of Caria, the wife (and sister) of King Mausolus, demonstrated her faithfulness and love by building an astonishing tomb for him after his death (353 BC), which became one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Hence the word mausoleum.

Cossacks Zaporozh: A society of well-organized, well-governed, and uncompromising warriors in Central Ukraine, who thrived from the fifteenth to the late eighteenth century.