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Writing to Allen Tate in 1926, Yvor Winters noted that he was planning to publish a critical work in French: Not that I prefer either that literature or that language to our own but because the publication of anything so utterly and unreadably mathematical as my critical system—a primitive version of a part of which, a small part, appeared in English in Secession—seems impossible, and because two Frenchmen—Franck Schoell and Rene Lalou—having seen it were pleased with it and thought they could find me a publisher in Paris. Or rather, this thought was Schoell's. So last summer I put the completed essay into French and am now finishing up the anthology (Leconte de Lisle to Radiguet) to illustrate it. (November 18, 1926) [1]Shortly thereafter he wrote the French poet, Francis Vielé-Griffin, on the same subject, speaking of an anthology (he wanted to include poems by Vielé-Griffin) "to illustrate a long critical essay, expounding certain theories of modernism of my own..." (November 26, 1929). [2] As for the critical contents of this work, one knows that it elaborated on "a primitive version of a part, a small part," that appeared earlier: "The Testament of a Stone, Being Notes on the Mechanics of the Poetic Image" (Secession, no. 8, 1924; reprinted in Winters' Uncollected Essays and Reviews). No doubt it also relied on Winters' masters' thesis, A Method of Critical Approach to Works of Literature Based Primarily upon a Study of the Lyric in French and English (University of Colorado, 1925). One section of the thesis was "Notes on the Mechanics of the Poetic Image," itself an expanded version of "The Testament of a Stone." Additionally, some of this material would be reworked in Winters' later critical writings. I refer the interested reader to Grosvenor Powell's indispensable Yvor Winters: An Annotated Bibliography 1919-1982. Certainly, this work was never published; nor does a manuscript of the critical text exist. (This is not surprising, since Winters frequently destroyed manuscripts when they ceased to be of practical value to him.) However, not only did Winters complete the illustrative anthology, but a single manuscript copy is in the possession of the Winters family. Since my edition of the Selected Letters was published, I have received letters inquiring particularly about this anthology of French poetry. Therefore, it seems to me that it might be worth publishing the table of contents (the poems themselves being easily tracked down) as documenting Winters' critical and intellectual positions at this point in his career. Remember that this anthology was compiled in 1926 or thereabouts; that is, despite a lifelong interest in and admiration of French poetry, this would have been the stage in Winters' career where his judgment, while acute, would have been more catholic than at any subsequent time. TABLE DES MATIÈRESGÉRARD DE NERVAL El Desdichado 84THEOPHILE GAUTIER L’Hippopotame 89CHARLES LECONTE DE LISLE Midi 94CHARLES BAUDELAIRE Le Portrait 95CHARLES CROS En Cours d’Assises 111STÉPHANE MALLARMÉ Soupir 115JOSÉ-MARÍA DE HEREDIA L’Oubli 127PAUL VERLAINE Femme et Chat 129TRISTAN CORBIERE Un Jeune qui s’en Va 140GERMAIN NOUVEAU Dernier Madrigal 152ARTHUR RIMBAUD Bateau Ivre 155LAURENT TAILHADE Barcarolle 168EMILE VERHAEREN Les Plaines 169GEORGES RODENBACH Épilogue 178ALBERT SAMAIN L’Infante 180JULES LAFORGUE Complainte de la Bonne Défunte 183SAINT-POL-ROUX Golgotha 189HENRI DE RÉGNIER Elégié Double 190FRANCIS VIÉLÉ-GRIFFIN La Source 192FRANCIS JAMMES La Jeune Fille 198PAUL VALÉRY Le Cimètiere Marin 206ALFRED JARRY Le Bain du Roi 215H. J.-M. LEVET Outwards 216GUILLAUME APOLLINAIRE La Chanson du Mal-Aimé 217JEAN DE BOSSCHÈRE L’Horloger 227[1] Yvor Winters, The Selected Letters of Yvor Winters, ed. R.L. Barth (Athens, OH: Ohio University Press/Swallow Press, 2000), 81-82. Note that Winters apparently changed his mind (the manuscript seems to be intact) and dropped Radiguet, ending the anthology with Bosschere. [2] Winters, 84-85.
Barth, R.L. "Yvor Winters's Anthology of French Poetry." The New Compass: A Critical Review 4 (December 2004) [http://www.thenewcompass.ca/dec2004/barth.html]
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