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Among the great poets of literary history,
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certain names like Homer,
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Shakespeare,
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Milton,
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and Whitman are instantly recognizable.
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However, there's an early 20th century
great French poet
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whose name you may not know;
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Guillaume Apollinaire.
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He was a close friend and collaborator
of artists like Picasso,
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Rousseau,
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and Chagall.
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He coined the term surrealism,
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and he was even suspected of stealing
the Mona Lisa in 1911.
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During his short lifetime,
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he created poetry that combined
text and image
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in a way that seemingly predicted
an artistic revolution to come.
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In the late 19th
and early 20th century Paris,
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the low-rent districts of Montmartre
and Montparnasse
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were home to every
kind of starving artist.
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It was all they could afford.
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These painters, writers,
and intellectuals,
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united in their artistic passion
and counter-culture beliefs,
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made up France's bohemian sub-culture.
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And their works of art, literature,
and intellect would shake up the world.
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At the turn of the 20th century,
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within this dynamic scene,
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art critic, poet,
and champion of the avant-garde,
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Guillaume Apollinaire
was a well-known fixture.
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As an art critic, Apollinaire explained
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the cubist
and surrealist movements to the world,
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and rose to the defense
of many young artists
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in the face of what was often
a xenophobic and narrow-minded public.
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As a poet, Apollinaire was passionate
about all forms of art
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and a connoisseur of medieval literature,
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especially calligraphy
and illuminated initials.
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As a visionary, Apollinaire saw a gap
between two artistic institutions.
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On one side was the popular, highly
lauded traditional art forms of the time.
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On the other, the forms
of artistic expression
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made possible through surrealism,
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cubism,
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and new inventions,
like the cinema,
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and the phonograph.
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Within that divide,
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through the creation of his most important
contribution to poetry,
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the Calligramme,
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Guillaume Apollinaire built a bridge.
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Apollinaire created the Calligramme
as a poem picture,
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enrichened portrait,
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a thoughts drawing,
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and he used it to express his modernism
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and his desire to push poetry beyond
the normal bounds of text and verse
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and into the 20th century.
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Some of his calligrams are funny,
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like the Le Tous.
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Some of them are dedicated
to his young dead friends,
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like La Colombe Poirnardee
Et Le Jet D'eau.
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Some of them are the expression
of an emotional moment,
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as is Il Pleut:
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"It's raining women's voices
as if they had died even in memory,
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and it's raining you as well,
Marvellous encounters of my life,
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o little drops.
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Those rearing clouds begin to neigh
a whole universe of auricular cities.
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Listen if it rains while regret
and disdain weep to an ancient music.
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Listen to the bonds fall off
which hold you above and below."
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Each calligramme is intended
to allow readers to unchain themselves
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from the regular experience of poetry,
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and feel and see something new.
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Lettre-Océan is first an image to be seen
before even the words are read.
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Text-only elements combine with words
in shapes and forms.
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Two circular forms,
one locked in a square,
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the other, morph beyond
the page in the shape of a spiral.
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Together they create a picture
that hints toward cubism.
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Then on closer reading of the text,
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the descriptive words within suggest
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the image of an aerial view
of the Eiffel Tower.
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They give tribute to electromagnetic waves
of the telegraph,
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a new form of communication at the time.
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Undoubtedly, the deeply layered artistic
expressions in Apollina's calligrammes
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are not just a brilliant display
of poetic prowess
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from a master of the form.
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Each calligramme itself is also
a snapshot in time,
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encapsulating the passion,
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the excitement,
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and the anticipation of all the
bohemian artists of Paris,
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including Apollinaire,
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most of whom are well ahead of their time,
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and with their innovative work,
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eagerly grasping for the future.