random and devoid of meaning, which they recited in the lively atmospheres of cafés and bars. Their works celebrated absurdity and the role of chance, challenging the very essence of creativity. Dada's influence swiftly spread to Paris after the war, with Tzara taking the movement to England and the United States, where it left its mark on the poetry of visionaries like Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot. By 1921, Dadaism had begun to metamorphose into surrealism, yet its legacy persisted, shaping artistic and literary thought for years to come.

Surrealism

In the vibrant crucible of post-war France, surrealism found its voice in the early 20th century, championed by the likes of Guillaume Apollinaire, who coined the term, the French poet André Breton, and the Spanish maestro Salvador Dali. In 1924, Breton penned the first of three manifestos that defined the movement. Drawing inspiration from Freudian psychoanalysis, surrealists sought to delve into the hidden recesses of the subconscious, rejecting the rational confines of traditional art that demanded order and intention. They embraced the liberation of creativity from all constraints.

Surrealists often engaged in automatic writing, exploring expressions born from the unconscious mind, dreams, and hallucinatory states. They believed that true creative power resided within the subconscious, where the disparate elements of daily life intertwined and harmonized. This raw energy, they asserted, could be harnessed by the conscious mind to breathe life into art.

Artists such as Max Ernst and Picasso, along with writers like Louis Aragon and Paul Éluard, became prominent figures within the surrealist movement, which often intersected with revolutionary political and social currents of the time. Its influence coursed through the veins of 20th-century literature, inspiring American literary giants such as Henry Miller, William Burroughs, and Allen Ginsberg, as well as playwrights like Eugène Ionesco and Samuel Beckett, who experimented with the unbridled flow of thought, untethered by formal poetic or dramatic frameworks.

Imagists

In the dawn of the twentieth century, a wave of poets embarked on daring explorations of form and style, driven by a quest for linguistic truthfulness. Among these literary pioneers were the imagists, whose influence significantly shaped modernist poetry. Modernism, a genre mirroring the societal and existential disarray of contemporary life, found its voice in the imagists' rebellion against the stale conventions of poetic language. They boldly abandoned cliched diction and rigid meter, embracing instead the fluid, unrestrained expression of free verse.

In 1913, Ezra Pound, a prominent figurehead of this avant-garde movement, unveiled Des imagistes, an anthology that showcased the imagist spirit. This collection featured works by luminaries such as James Joyce, H.D. (Hilda Doolittle), William Carlos Williams, Frank Stuart Flint, Ford Madox Ford (also known as Ford Madox Hueffer), and Amy Lowell. Within its pages, Pound articulated his imagist creed, which demanded a direct engagement with the subject matter, the elimination of any superfluous language, and a focus on a cadence of lyrical phrases over rigidly structured meter.

Ironic Contradictions

The poem "Always" is a tapestry woven with threads of irony, born from the clashing images and phrases that Apollinaire so deftly employs. His juxtapositions cloak meaning, yet paradoxically illuminate it. Each stanza pulsates with contrasting imagery—like the opening stanza, where the idea of venturing further while standing still becomes the heartbeat of the poem's theme. This motif of contradiction echoes in the following stanza as Don Juan, grounded yet cosmic in his reach, voyages among stars and fleeting nebulae. Here, the juxtaposition of the tangible (planets) with the ephemeral (nebulae) injects a whimsical charm. In a dance of discovery and amnesia, Columbus embodies both forgetfulness and revelation in the third stanza, while the finale transforms the sorrow of loss into an unexpected triumph.

Apollinaire navigates these tonal shifts with a deft hand, infusing irony into the narrative's very fabric. Seriousness is often tempered with a touch of jest. The second stanza juxtaposes the rigorous pursuit of knowledge with amorous escapades, while the solemn act of forgetting becomes a jubilant forgetting of entire realms in the third stanza. Ultimately, the poem closes on a note where losing life, traditionally a somber affair, is paradoxically celebrated as a form of victory.

The irony extends into Apollinaire’s linguistic choices. By employing free verse and a conversational tone, he injects levity into weighty subjects. His enigmatic, contradictory language challenges readers, compelling them to linger over each word, rather than sprint to the poem’s conclusion in search of meaning.

In Yale French Studies, Balakian observes Apollinaire's belief that "words could make and unmake a universe." The poet weaves a creative tapestry of logically disconnected images, urging readers to stretch their imagination to align with his uniquely "oblong" perspective. Balakian concludes that Apollinaire's manipulation of time and space challenges conventional reality yet remains grounded in the sensory experiences of the earth.

Cubism

In crafting "Always," Apollinaire organizes each stanza as a visual feast of four images, inviting multiple interpretations much like a cubist masterpiece. This technique extends to his line construction. Roger Shattuck, in his introduction to Selected Writings of Guillaume Apollinaire, notes that Apollinaire maintains "an integrity of line," wherein each line stands robustly, with only minimal reliance on its successors. This structural integrity is particularly pronounced in the third stanza, where every line crystallizes into a complete thought.

Shattuck further observes that the absence of punctuation underscores this integrity, as "his lines are sufficiently end-stopped to make each a unit." Apollinaire’s conversational tone in free verse naturally brings each line to a pause, thus enhancing the poem's clarity and immediacy.

• 1910s: Cubism emerges as a revolutionary force in early 20th-century art, shattering conventional perspectives and offering a kaleidoscopic vision of reality. Artists like Picasso and Braque break down figures into geometric fragments—cylinders, spheres, and cones—transforming the familiar into abstract masterpieces of human forms, landscapes, and still lifes.

  Today: The canvas of contemporary art is painted with the vibrant hues of political and social commentary. From human rights to gender dynamics, artists push boundaries by fusing traditional techniques with avant-garde performance and multimedia explorations.

• 1910s: Poetry of the era casts a shadow of somber reflection on the industrialized world and its wars. Poets like T. S. Eliot in "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" and William Butler Yeats in "The Second Coming" channel a collective disillusionment, using their verses to weave a tapestry of societal angst rather than personal introspection.

  Today: Contemporary voices such as Sharon Olds in "Taking Notice" and Margaret Atwood in "They Eat Out" continue to echo the twentieth century's bleak zeitgeist. Their words delve into personal narratives, transforming universal pessimism into intimate reflections drawn from their own experiences.

• 1910s: Marked by the thunderous onset of World War I in 1914, this era witnesses unprecedented destruction, leaving ten million dead and twenty million wounded in its wake. Poets like Wilfred Owen in "Dulce et Decorum Est," Siegfried Sassoon in "The Power and the Glory," and Apollinaire capture the war's harrowing impact. Their works often ponder the grand illusions of warfare and the exaltation of soldiers, rather than overt protest.

  Today: The 2003 invasion of Iraq by the United States, alongside thirty-four allied nations, ignites a storm of controversy. In response, poet Sam Hamill rallies approximately fifty fellow poets to lend their voices against the war through verse. The outcry quickly swells as fifteen hundred poets craft fervent protests, which Hamill forwards to the White House. Poets worldwide, including Julia Alvarez with "The White House Has Disinvited the Poets" and Robert Bly with "Call and Answer," join the Poets Against War movement, penning powerful works of dissent.

Sources

Apollinaire, Guillaume, "Always," in The Self-Dismembered Man: Selected Later Poems of Guilluame Apollinaire, translated by Donald Revell, Wesleyan University Press, 2004, p. 109.

Balakian, Anna, "Apollinaire and the Modern Mind," in Yale French Studies, No. 4, 1949, pp. 79, 81, 83-87.

Bates, Scott, Guillaume Apollinaire, Twayne Publishers, 1967, p. 111.

Davies, Margaret, Review of Calligrammes, in Modern Language Review, Vol. 77, No. 3, July 1982, pp. 730-31.

Greet, Anne Hyde, "Commentary," in Calligrammes: Poems of Peace and War (1913–1916), translated by Anne Hyde Greet, University of California Press, 1980, p. 435.

Lockerbie, S. I., "Introduction," in Calligrammes: Poems of Peace and War (1913–1916), translated by Anne Hyde Greet, University of California Press, 1980, pp. 1-3.

Markus, M. B., Review of Calligrammes, in Library Journal, August 1980, p. 1639.

Revell, Donald, "Translator's Afterword," in The Self-Dismembered Man: Selected Later Poems of Guillaume Apollinaire, Wesleyan University Press, 2004, p. 141.

Shattuck, Roger, "Introduction," in Selected Writings of Guillaume Apollinaire, translated by Roger Shattuck, New Directions, 1971, p. 26.

Further Reading

Berry, David, The Creative Vision of Guillaume Apollinaire: A Study of Imagination, Anma Libri, 1982.

Berry traces the development of Apollinaire's theories on creativity and their application in his poetry.

Davies, Margaret, Apollinaire, St. Martin's Press, 1965.

Davies explores biographical information about Apollinaire and presents analyses of his work.

Mackworth, Cecily, Guillaume Apollinaire and the Cubist Life, Horizon, 1963.

Mackworth analyzes the cubist artists' influence on Apollinaire's life and work.

Steegmuller, Francis, Apollinaire: Poet among the Painters, Farrar, Straus, 1963.

In this study, Steegmuller outlines Apollinaire's relationship with the artists of his age.

Themerson, Stefan, Apollinaire's Lyrical Ideograms, Gaberbocchus, 1968.

Themerson concentrates on the style of Apollinaire's later poetry.