ABSTRACT
Jouve’s early formation was marked by Romain Rolland and the short-lived Unanimist movement. The next important event was his religious crisis in 1924, which caused him to renounce his early works and enter a new phase of poetic activity (plus the composition of five novels) in which spiritual and erotic sensibility predominates (the influence of Freudian psychoanalysis is also significant). His work during and after World War II continues along that same vein-La Vierge de Paris (The Virgin of Paris) of 1946, Hymne (Hymn) from 1947 and Diadème (Diadem) in 1949. The later poems, Ode and Langue (Language), from 1950 and 1954 respectively, make use of the verset (versicle) introduced into French poetry by Claudel and Saint-John Perse. A strong theme in Jouve’s poetry is the spiritual anguish caused by the sense of nothingness (frequent reference to ‘Nada’). Somewhat in contrast with most French poets, whose strongest affinities are with the plastic arts, Jouve maintained a lively attachment to music, publishing important lengthy essays on Mozart’s Don Giovanni in 1942 and on Berg’s Wozzeck in 1953. There is also a journal, En miroir (In the Looking Glass), published in 1954, and translations from Hölderlin, Shakespeare and St Theresa of Avila. The complete poems are published by Mercure de France (Poésies) in four volumes (1964-7).
