Resumo de Words For All Seasons

Translation by: femme/600/11November 2005
With the greatest of expression and verbal register, Prevert attacks all that he abhors-war, poverty, the bourgeoisie, and he celebrates all that he loves-free love, childhood, and the simple "joie de vivre."
This collection includes ninety-five poems in which Jacques Prevert has poured out, with humor throughout, poems that are charged with violence and the content of his diverse passions. Many of his texts express irreducible phobias, among which the horror and absurdity of war endlessly reappear. These are the times of family, Barbara, political infiltrations, social injustice, poverty, and above all, bourgeois conformity with its procession of narrow-minded and out-of-date values. There are attempts to describe a dinner at which guests are wearing masks and reciting the Pater noster over crab. Prevert exercises the art of unveiling, in street scenes and through his depiction of social unrest, the egoism of human behavior and the unequal struggle between the haves and the have-nots.
But Prevert also knows how to put into expression that which he loves. This pacifist is a friend and protector of children. He's on a hunt for lost childhood, free love aggressively pursued by right-minded people, peace, and joy. I am what I am-it's the song of the jailer. This anarchist transformed himself into the songster for freedom and of the most unbridled of fantasies. In art, his model is Picasso. To paint in words the portrait of a bird, he goes to the Promenade de Picasso.
In fact, it's only a less facile poetry which his words possess that he shows in this book. These poems, which seem simple and non-pretentious, had all the qualities required to achieve a favorable reception from a wide audience. The controversial themes and the evocation of a world free from all social constraints assured Prevert that he could adher to a youthfulness even near the end of his forties, a youthfulness that still exists for us today under the influence of his spell. His simple style, through which he did not disregard the embellishment of his slangy expressions, seems to be accessible for everyone. But looking at his poetry more closely, one needs great sensitivity and even to be somewhat cultured to appreciate all its effects. Certain of his rather long poems, written like they're preposterous stories, cultivate a quasi-surrealist vein to which children are very sensitive. Some of his other poems utilize the caustic technique of a play on words, even the pun. The effects of caricature, significant literary simplifications, and all the possibilities derived from the rythym that free verse offers, are to be seen in Prevert's work.
Prevert also knew how to abandon himself to the delights of lyricism in order to celebrate life, love, and freedom.
Prevert also expressed himself through the world of song. He created the scenes and dialogues of numerous unforgettable films such as Quai des Brumes (Fog on the Wharf) (1938) and Les Enfants du Paradis (Children of Paradise) (1944).
The following was also written by Prevert:

PARIS AT NIGHT

One by one, three matches lit up in the night,
The first to see your face completely,
The second to see your eyes,
The last to see your mouth.
I need total darkness to remember that all
As I hold you in my arms.

Resumos Relacionados