Digging for 'Syllabic Gold': essay on Esther Tellermann’s 'Ciel sans prise' and Encounters with the Other

Abstract

This article explores Esther Tellermann’s 2023 poetry collection Ciel sans prise (Sky with No Hold), emphasizing encounters with the Other in the context of mourning. It foregrounds the musicalization of such encounters, notably when Tellermann expresses interest in both the fabric of language and a beloved recently disappeared, making brief elegiac lines of verse tremble via polysemic words and textured, patterned repetitions. The study’s three parts, “Letting Song Ripen,” “Crafting Effective Prayer” and “Crafting Effective Poems,” by highlighting the renewal of poetic speech as well as reading comparatively Ciel sans prise and Francis Jammes’ 1901 Le Deuil des primevères (The Mourning of Primroses), will show how Tellermann disrupts and decenters traditional approaches to lyricism, ensures language’s musicality, brings color back to nature and introduces gestures toward the sacred. A close reading will highlight various stylistic traits and their effects on the poetry collection’s aural and semantic materiality. We will particularly see ways in which this work surpasses mourning, aiming not only to accompany a departed companion, but also to safeguard poetry as a place of becoming in which to dwell.