Deconstructing Poetry Codes in 'Monsieur Monsieur, Métamorphoses' by Jean Tardieu

Extract

[...] The association and assimilation of words that were a priori radically opposed continue until the end of the poem, with this time words, chosen for rhyming, that appear as antonyms: 'pure' and 'mold' (verses 13 and 15) or more metaphorically 'engine' and 'heart'. The association of the two latter words is indeed to be compared to the assimilation that the poet makes between 'the train whistle' and swallow', implying by this that he feels a dehumanization of society. He no longer hears his heart or the song of a swallow, which have been replaced by metallic sounds without soul. [...]

[...] Then comes the first turning point of the poem with verses 6 and 7. If the reader thought until then that they were dealing with a 'simply' dark poem, Tardieu 'catches' them off guard, so to speak, with the words 'chapeau' and 'artichaut', whose association, in addition to the rhyme, is likely to elicit a smile. But beyond that, to the extent that the words forming the preceding rhymes had for the poet the double utility of rhyming and being synonyms, one cannot help but think that by putting 'chapeau' and 'artichaut' on the same level, Tardieu questions us in a more metaphysical way, about the meaning of words. [...]

[...] We will proceed with a linear commentary of the poem in order to extract its progression. Formed of pentameters, 'Métamorphoses' quickly disorients the reader with a lack of unity in the length of the stanzas as well as irregularity in the rhymes, sometimes in the form of flat rhymes (verses 22-23) and sometimes in the form of crossed rhymes like for verses 13 and 15. The dark atmosphere that the poet installs from the first verses with the 'black night' is confirmed when the expression is associated with History that Tardieu takes the trouble to personify with a capital letter. [...]

[...] A mocking and wicked stranger who will pounce on me.2 The poet's questioning thus grows crescendo until its climax, at the end, with 'the others for me' which recalls the famous is another' of Arthur Rimbaud. With concise, simple sentences and a deconstructed style, Tardieu manages to create a rhythm that gives musicality to the poem. His questioning reflects the poet's anguish in the face of the enigma that language always represents for him, but also the enigma of existing. [...]

[...] Monsieur Monsieur, Métamorphoses - Jean Tardieu (1943) - What are the mechanisms put in place by the poet to deconstruct the codes of poetry, and for what reasons? Poet of the twentieth century, Jean Tardieu is the son of a musician and a painter. In the line of a Baudelaire for whom 'perfumes, colours and sounds respond to each other'1, Tardieu has always considered that writing should be colorful like a Magritte or musical like a work by Debussy, which has made him a difficult artist to classify. [...]