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

Author(s)

  • Aaron Prevots Southwestern University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.51777/relief18432

Keywords:

Esther Tellermann, poetry, mourning, elegy, lyrism, music, prayer, sacred, lyricism

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.

Author Biography

  • Aaron Prevots, Southwestern University

    Aaron Prevots is Professor of French at Southwestern University (USA). His research emphasizes modern and contemporary French poetry. He is the author of articles on numerous poets and of the monographs Esther Tellermann: Énigme, prière,identité (Brill, 2022), Bernard Vargaftig: Gestures toward the Sacred (Peter Lang, 2019), and Jacques Réda: Being There, Almost (Brill Rodopi, 2016). He has also published translations: Silences (VVV, 2019) and As Breathing (VVV, 2010), by Vargaftig; At the Water’s Edge (VVV, 2017), selected poems by Jean-Claude Pinson; and, by Réda, Europes (Host, 2009), Thirteen Songs of Dark Love (VVV, 2008) and Return to Calm (Host, 2007).

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Published

2023-12-14

How to Cite

“Digging for ’Syllabic Gold’: essay on Esther Tellermann’s ’Ciel sans prise’ and Encounters with the Other ” (2023) RELIEF - REVUE ÉLECTRONIQUE DE LITTÉRATURE FRANÇAISE, 17(2), pp. 198–209. doi:10.51777/relief18432.