« Blason des fleurs et des fruits » – « Blason des arbres »

A pairing of the two “Blasons,” poems that mark a shift in Éluard’s editorial strategy. “Blason des fleurs et des fruits” appeared in February 1941 in occupied Paris, in La Nouvelle Revue française, relaunched in December 1940 under Pierre Drieu La Rochelle, whom the occupation authorities had imposed in place of Jean Paulhan. “Blason des arbres” was published in September of the same year in Algiers, in Fontaine, under the care of Max-Pol Fouchet, who enthused to Louis Parrot on 21 August: “Thanks to you, Fontaine will publish an admirable poem by Paul Éluard. This ‘Blason des arbres’ seems to me superior to what appeared in the ‘new’ NRF. There are overwhelming moments of ‘transparency.’ Allow me to thank you a thousand times, and to tell you my joy.” (Scheler, pp. 76–77)

The dedicatee of “Blason des fleurs et des fruits,” Jean Paulhan, whose name had been struck from the proofs and restored only at the poet’s insistent request, later reminded Éluard, at the Liberation, of this questionable publication: “At that time you were collaborating on the review — as Gide and Valéry did, as Mauriac declared himself ready to do. You changed afterward, as they did — but not, I think, for the same reason. For Gide and Valéry it must have been the protests of their friends; for you, Russia’s entry into the war.” (Correspondance, p. 185)

The two “Blasons” at the turning point of 1941 for Éluard.