Paul Valéry (1871-1945):

Life
 Born in a small Mediterranean port and educated in Montpellier. His childhood idols were
Edgar Allan Poe, Huysmans, and Mallarmé.
 In response to unrequited love, he became obsessed with the “Idol of the Intellect”. This took
the form of meditation for hours at a time on scientific principles and theories of
consciousness. He was known for producing aphorisms during this time, and studied
Leonardo da Vinci, the ideal of a Universal Man, and “Monsieur Teste,” a non-material
intellect who only considers the possible and impossible.
 Worked from 1897 to 1900 in the French War Office, then married, then became the private
secretary of the director of the French press association when he became highly involved in
current affairs.
 After 1922, he was recognized for being erudite, knowledgeable, and a gifted
conversationalist so that he became quite the public figure. He was particularly interested in
the work of Einstein, Riemann, Faraday, and Maxwell.
 In 1925 he was elected to the Académie Française, in 1933 he became the head administrator
at Centre Universitaire Méditerranéen, and in 1937 he became professor of poetry at the
Collège de France.

Poetry
 Most well-known work is La Jeune Parque and Le Cimetière marin.
 A recurring theme is the contrast between the perfect and infinite intellect and the
imperfections of human action.
 He claimed that poetry was of little interest to him. He studied mathematics, literary
composition, science, language, politics, architecture, dancing, painting, philosophy, and
education all more extensively then poetry.
 He was adopted by the symbolists, particularly Mallarmé, but his preoccupation with the
intellect required emotional detachment. The surrealists severely critiqued his–as they saw
it—low view of poetry.
 His poetry is characterized by:
o Inaccessibility. His poems are dense and intellectual
o Sensuousness, particularly the luxury of lovers and nude women
o Classical form

Source:
Burnshaw, Stanley. The Poem Itself. Fayetteville, University of Arkansas Press, 1995.

“Paul Valéry.” Gibson, Robert Donald Davidson. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Paul-Valery. Date Accessed 23 February 2020.
 Paul Valéry
La Jeune Parque
 This poem recalls Mallarmé’s Toast Funèbre with its long discourse on a difficult subject
and the simple, repeated rimes plats. Valéry is differentiated from Mallarmé however in his
tone and attention to melody. Between the two, Valéry’s writing is much easier to read
despite the comparable difficulty in comprehension.
 The sounds of this poem are dense. Line 223 announces the start of new kind of complexity
with alliterative « dernier diamants » and « Demain ». The answer comes one line later now
with a doubled rhyme « bontés constellés » which further resonates with « briser » and
« scellées ». The next sound is « où » with an enjambment to « Venu? » and then « doux ».
This network of mixed and matched sounds, sometimes with alliterations sometimes with
symmetrical layering of sounds demonstrates a mastery of lyrical French. Coupled with the
subject matter, I think a few lifetimes would be needed to notice everything hidden in these
lines which represent only a fragment of the total poem.
 From the imagery, I get the sense that Valéry did not have superficial interest for his long
laundry list of studies. He reimagined the veins on the leaves of a tree as well as the angular
lines of each branch as a weighty collection of “horizons”. This geometrical interpretation of
a simple image requires remarkable synaptic cooperation among mathematics, language, and
strangely enough, empathy. His figurative language is not fluff and it is not as
uncommunicable as I found Mallarmé’s to be. His connection of the vascular tubes of a tree
to an underground river fed and nurtured by Death perfectly merges scientific fact with his
creative expression. As someone in STEM, I find it really refreshing to see an example of
this Renaissance man, able to apply one’s own berth of knowledge to a seemingly unrelated
art form.
 The death that fills the “veins” of the trees rising up in response to the conquest of spring
leaves the fate caught in the crossfire. The fates commonly represented the stages of a human
life, so this young fate seems to represent Valéry’s search for peace and acceptance amongst
his intellectual breakdown early on in his career. The fate begins to look inwards in an
attempt to bring about self-actualization; thus, an invocation of her tear follows.
 The scientific perspective creeps back in through Valéry’s indication of the « orgueil du
labyrinthe » of the body, but it is coupled with the tear’s poetic origin: the soul. The
questions asked by the fate are unanswerable and, I think, a bit tragic. To ask oneself where
such sadness comes from and why tears are delayed emphasizes a certain disconnect from the
emotions and mind of Valéry. I can relate to the sometimes dominant sterilizing effects that
the mind can bring about over the human experience if the intellect is left unchecked. It is
entirely too easy for some to reach this point of questioning where the only way back to
“feeling normal” and “accepting life as it is” requires reintegration of analyzed emotions.
 While the tear illuminates the different paths leading to death, the reason for the tear resides
in her maternal future. Yet another stage of life, this one, closely related to the creation of
more life and fathered by the rejuvenation of spring, has a « marche sûre ». It appears that the
inevitable passage of time and continual examination of oneself, even unto the invocation of
tears, leads to the discovery and acceptance of life’s purpose.
 Paul Valéry
La Dormeuse
 This poem is not a love poem, nor is it a mere description of the beauty of a woman. Valéry
approaches the enthrallment of such a sensuous image with his characteristic detachment. His
soul, mind, or inward self externally examines the components of the sleeping woman which
explains a missing physical response found in similar poems. It is not particularly clear if the
poet is even attracted to the woman beyond her overflowing sensuousness. This is not a
heady, intoxicating Baudelaire poem in which the poet takes an active part, but a careful
observation of what a woman’s body is, what sleep does to it, and why it is so alluring.
 I like that after mentioning the « rayonnement d’une femme endormie », the next line is
packed with s consonance. The glittery sounds of « Souffle, songes, silences, invincible
accalmie » seem to shoot out from the sleeping figure like a firework. Each aspect of sleep is
rearranged from a linear timeline into the physical space around the woman and the poet
considers them simultaneously.
 Valéry calls the sleeping figure « une telle ennemie ». There is no direct animosity, but he
almost recognizes her intellect as a rival to his. He is at peace examining and appreciating her
physical form and its potentialities aside from the mind that animates her. Though her soul is
far away in suggestive « enfers » the form is alive to him in perception, and he is open to
receiving it.
 Valéry plays around with sonority and repetition of sounds in this poem similar to La Jeune
Parque. For example the first tercet groups d together in « Dormeuse, amas doré d’ombres et
d’abandons » which continues but then mingles with the r of « repos redoutable ». The é
sound in « doré » comes back in « chargé » then everything is wrapped up with « dons ». The
sounds then change as both the rhyme and idea have been “fulfilled”. This may be a
carryover from Valéry’s history of writing aphorisms, because unlike Verlaine’s sustained
and overlapping lyricism, Valéry tends to segment his melodic experimentation into smaller
pieces.
 Paul Valéry
Le Cimetière Marin
 I really enjoy Valéry’s poetry. I find him particularly noble-minded in his approach to
subjects like death, beauty, and nothingness. I find that he has more restraint than most poets,
never focusing too closely on the senses or experiences and not allowing an overbearing
ideology to mar the joy of reading a poem. I was worried that he would be another Mallarmé
for me whose works I found very inaccessible, and while there is far more in each of these
poems than what I have gleaned so far, there seems to be a higher return on investment with
Valéry.
 The structure of the poem is new to me with a simple rime plat attached at the beginning of a
familiar four line rhyme scheme. The ten syllables of each line is also interesting and serves
to balance out the longer stanzas where an alexandrine might be too long.
 The message of the poem is very uplifting. There is tension between the poet considering
why life continues when death is inevitable and maybe even preferable. If life is « ivre
d’absence » to begin with, then each one of us is only one degree of freedom from death
anyway. Valéry identifies the excitement and renewal that death can bring, then pushes it
aside with a sense of boyish adventure to conquer the unpredictable ebbs and flows of living.
Death can wait, and should be viewed as rewarding rest for a life well lived.
 The meditation on Noon, high above and ever still is my favorite image in the poem. The
perfect, circular sun is self-sufficient and constant; however, Valéry declares himself the
change taking place within it. His life is not constant or perfect, so he reasons that the passing
days of his life provide a secret drama and intrigue to what is immovable. A human life can
have meaning and can exert itself against the permanent fixtures of nature; thus, there is
reason to resist the call of death or the unity of nothingness.
 Almost any line can be picked at examined for its sounds, but there is a great example in
lines 69 and 70. The é sound rings out in « brûlé, défait » then later in « sévère ». To me, the
sound and pattern are reminiscent of the dull clang of a buoy by the dock. Additioanlly, the
wash of s’s in « paresse », « sécheresse », « reçu », then all at once in « je ne sais quelle
sévère essense », « absence », « douce » and « esprit » are all sprays of salt water against the
quay or in the wind. These effects are appropriate in the stanza as Valéry reinforces the
spatial setting of the poem.
 In contrast to the poets I have thus studied, Valéry’s meditation on death is one of triumphant
defiance. The world would be a « grand diamant » if it weren’t for humanity’s stubbornness,
and this praise for life reflects a noble and inspired worldview. For such an intellectual poet,
he does not fall prey to heavy contemplation of the termination of life or morbidity. Instead,
despite the very Poe-esque descriptions of decomposing bodies in the last stanza, he finds
excitement that the energy of life and defiant spirit of humanity returns to the game.