The Birdcage Archives

Tuesday 2 March 2021

Philippe Jaccottet, dies Aged 95

Hello Gentle Reader,

The French language is riddled with some of the greatest writers, thinkers, and cultural cultivators. From Voltaire of the Enlightenment; to George Sand of the Romantics; to the revolutionary Charles Baudelaire; Marcel Proust whose genius was only recognized after his death; to the Twentieth Century and beyond, riddled with its extraordinary writers, poets and philosophers, such as: Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, Francis Ponge, Michel Foucault, Marguerite Duras, Yves Bonnefoy, and Annie Ernaux. Among them resides the recently deceased nonagrian Philippe Jaccottet. The Swiss French language poet was one of the titans of modern Francophone Literature and poetry. Through a literary career that spanned more than five decades, Jaccottet remained a constant poetic voice in the French literary canon. His poetry refused the proliferation and propagation of poetic noise, as continued stream of a hyper-monologue to mimic the image and information cacophony of the burgeoning world in the Information Age. He shunned the notion of hermetic poetic concepts, which turned poetry into a cipher, leaving readers baffled and bewildered. No, Jacoettet practiced poetry as an act of crystalline transparency, the ability to get intimate and close with the subjects, and all subsequent observations, thoughts and feelings associated with it. One may think his obsessive preoccupation with the immediacy of the landscape and nature, coupled with his straightforward poetry, made him ‘just,’ a nature poet. This is a superficial perspective with reasonable critical analysis. Nature may be a subject, but his poetry in its simple use of language perceives with a clarity and depth that reaches far into the heart of the matter, which just happens to be reflected in the natural and obstructed landscape he observed. Throughout his poetic career, the language employed by Philippe Jaccottet, became increasingly sparse in form. Critics noted his brief snapshots were reminiscent of the Japanese haiku style; continually seeking to grasp in the simplest form of language, the ephemeral and transcending reality that engulfs and surrounds. Philippe Jaccottet is one of the few living writers (upon its initial publication) to be included in the Bibliothèque de la PlĂ©iade, which includes: Nobel Laurates Saint-John Perse and Andrew Gide; Milan Kundera, Nathalie Sarraute and Eugene Ionesco. Beyond being one of the most accomplished titans of French language poetry, Philippe Jaccottet was a prolific literary critic, and adamant translator of German language poets into French.

Philippe Jaccottet Died February 24th 2021.

Rest in Peace, Philippe Jaccottet.

Thank-you For Reading Gentle Reader
Take Care
And As Always
Stay Well Read

M. Mary

 

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