Description

FIRST EDITION of this collection of 35 poems by Arthur Ponroy.

Two poetic manifestos serve as prefaces to the book.

A playwright, novelist and critic, Arthur Ponroy struggled to make his poetic work known. But no matter: "this writer, shying away from criticism and fearing that he would not be appreciated as he deserved to be, prefaced his work with Shapes and colours a preface in which he simply awards himself the crown of genius"writes Emile Chevalet, who also emphasises the quality of his writing ( Les 365, Directory of contemporary literature and authors. Paris: Librairie moderne, 1858).

Georges Dicks, in a booklet entitled Literary criticism of a French poet, by an Englishman, (Paris: Béthune et Plon, 1842), deplores the lack of attention paid to Shapes and colours, a collection that would testify to the great talent of a young poet. But according to Quérard, this criticism was the work of Ponroy himself... (Literary trickeryT. 1, p. 937)

It is regrettable that these attempts, which demonstrate a certain flair for publicity, did not enable the poet to achieve posterity.

RARE.