Le Cimetière marin
One of 500 copies on Mittineague-mil paper (no. 165), after 7 copies on China paper and 49 on vélin d'Arches.
“Ce toit tranquille, où marchent les colombes, entre les pins palpite, entre les tombes; Midi le juste y compose de feux, La mer, la mer, toujours recommencée!” These lines are among the most celebrated in twentieth-century French poetry.
They first appeared in the N.R.F. in June 1920, then in book form, and were later included in Charmes (1922). Much has been written about the hypnotic music of the decasyllable, the image of Sète, and the landscapes of childhood, mythology and the Saint-Charles cemetery (which would only take its definitive name of cimetière marin in 1946). It is safe to say that this is Valéry’s most lyrical and least cerebral work, one in which, through a masterful use of alliteration, the sensuality of the landscape, the sun, the azure sky and the sea becomes almost palpable.
A fine copy.