Toast (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Stéphane Mallarmé
- First Published: 1893
- Type of Work: Sonnet
- Genres: Poetry, Sonnet
- Subjects: Traveling or travelers, Voyages, Poetry or poets, Emotions, Alcohol, Sailing or sailors, Drinking or drunkenness, Ocean, Feasting or feasts, Toasts
The Poem
“Toast” is a sonnet whose fourteen lines are broken into two groups of four lines and two groups of three lines. Stéphane Mallarmé delivered this “toast” at a banquet on February 9, 1893, to encourage his companions to drink in celebration of the magazine La Plume. The poem has a festive, optimistic tone befitting the purpose of its original composition. The poem’s French title, “Salut,” conveys the double and perhaps triple meaning that Mallarmé intended better than does the more static English translation, “Toast.” Salut is the word...
[The entire page is 1435 words long]
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