The poem "The Hills," composed in blank verse, unfolds across forty-four stanzas, each consisting of five lines. The title serves as a central metaphor throughout the poem, providing cohesion to a sprawling array of seemingly disjointed images. These hills symbolize elevation, both physical and metaphorical, offering a vantage point for foresight and superior understanding.

Narrative Perspective and Structure

"The Hills" primarily employs a first-person narrative consistent with many traditional lyric poems. However, in its original French version, Guillaume Apollinaire occasionally shifts into a second-person singular perspective (tu) to draw a contrast between his past and present selves. This shift accentuates the transition from old to new, from past to future. Furthermore, the poet addresses humanity in its entirety, using the second-person plural (vous), assuming a prophetic tone.

Imagery and Symbolism

The poem opens with a powerful image reminiscent of Apollinaire’s wartime experiences: a dogfight between two planes over Paris. Here, the planes symbolize different stages of life; the downing of the childhood and youth plane by the future plane signals a metaphorical triumph of the future. This victory heralds an era brimming with boundless knowledge and magic, where poets, standing atop metaphorical hills, proclaim the advent of "Billions of prodigies." Each subsequent stanza is rich with prophecy, memory, or dreamlike imagery, perpetuating the tension between future and past.

Psychoanalytical Depths

The origins of the poem’s imagery lie not in mere observation but are evocative of psychoanalytical exploration, emerging from the "Depths of consciousness." From these "abysses," poet-prophets arise, akin to hills themselves, offering a novel and equally valid form of world knowledge, parallel to scientific understanding. In Apollinaire’s characteristic blend of time, the predicted future seems to "come back," suggesting a cyclic world view where "here nothing ends nothing begins," and "Helpful spirits" of ancestors intermix with the present and future generations.

The Poet as Seer

The poet portrays himself as a visionary, one who can simultaneously recall the past and predict the future. Language, his tool for magic, serves as a "talisman . . ./ Dead and yet subtler than life." Rooted in history, language transcends time, remaining vibrant in the present and promising in the future through poetic innovation. The poet, akin to a shaman, explores unimagined realms, achieving a levitation above "all natural things." Poetry becomes a medium for self-reflection, enabling the poet to engage with himself as both the creator and subject: "it is I/ Who am the flute I play."

Unity and Disconnection

Eventually, the poet experiences a reunification with himself, symbolized by the sound of his "footsteps coming back." This reconciliation leads him to his desk, where he writes of his temporal travels. Each stanza presents disparate images, intent on severing ties with tradition, literary convention, or mundane semantics: oranges evoke fireworks, a maître d’hôtel serves unreal champagne to deceased patrons, and a chauffeur discovers new worlds at every turn. The poem culminates in a richly layered image of a world resembling a rose, with its core essence awaiting discovery.

Guillaume Apollinaire’s poem "The Hills," though deceptively traditional in format with its regular stanzas, is a powerful showcase of innovative literary techniques. It diverges from convention by forgoing punctuation, a feature that aligns it with the experimental spirit of his other works in Calligrammes, known for visually striking, object-shaped poems. Despite this deviation from the expected, "The Hills" retains a unique poetic language and imagery that sets it apart.

Navigating Time and Tense

Apollinaire's manipulation of tense in "The Hills" serves as a tool for exploring temporal fluidity. He intertwines the future, present, and past tenses, creating a tapestry that...