ABSTRACT
Salabreuil is one of the most musical French poets of the twentieth century. He is also one of the most gifted, rhetorically. In both his verse and his prose poems, syntax is so intricately constructed that lines or sentences can often be construed in alternative ways, depending on the breathing stops made by the reader. Comprehension of Salabreuil's ornate baroque vision is further challenged by the private symbols underlying his oeuvre. Soaring beyond personal history, however, Salabreuil's poetry recounts a cosmic, mystical drama experienced in the deepest recesses of the poet-seer's heart. Salabreuil's death is commonly attributed to suicide, a hypothesis questioned by Cluny. Whatever the truth may be, all three books envision, even presage, such an end. Often the poet contemplates, in his unique blend of Romantic ecstasy and grim lucidity, that "tomorrow" when "there will be traces / of the author's footsteps in the other night".
