Foreword: 'Ending the mission, inaugurating the pact' Yves Bonnefoy; Preface; Acknowledgments; General introduction Hugues Azérad; Part I. Traditions and Modernisms: 1. Paul Valéry, 'Le Cantique des colonnes' (1922) Peter Collier; 2. Victor Segalen, 'Aux dix mille années' (1912) Charles Forsdick; 3. Guillaume Apollinaire, 'Lettre-Océan' (1916) Timothy Mathews; 4. Marie Noël, 'Attente' (1920) Alison Finch; 5. Blaise Cendrars, 'Me too buggy' (1919) Clive Scott; 6. Saint-John Perse, 'Écrits sur la porte' (1911) Mary Gallagher; 7. Léopold Sédar Senghor, 'À New York' (1956) Roger Little; Part II. Avant-Gardes: 8. Pierre Reverdy, 'L'Esprit du dehors' (1915), 'L'Esprit dehors' (1960) Stephen Romer; 9. Paul Éluard, 'La courbe de ton coeur…' (1926) Richard Stamelman; 10. André Breton, 'Vigilance' (1932) Elza Adamowicz; 11. Aragon, 'Elsa je t'aime' (1941) Tom Conley; 12. Henri Michaux, 'Iniji' (1973) Margaret Rigaud-Drayton; 13. Aimé Césaire, Cahier d'un retour au pays natal (1939) Jean Khalfa; 14. Francis Ponge, 'Le Volet suivi de sa scholie' (1946) Philippe Met; Part III. Poetics of Presence: 15. René Char, 'Gravité' (1938) Roger Cardinal; 16. Yves Bonnefoy, 'Rue traversière' (1987) Victoria Best; 17. André du Bouchet, 'Accidents' (1961) Emma Wagstaff; 18. Jacques Dupin, 'Commencer' (1969) Mary Ann Caws; 19. Philippe Jaccottet, 'L'ignorant' (1958) Jean-Michel Maulpoix; 20. Édouard Glissant, 'Pour Mycéa' (1985) Jean-Pascal Pouzet; Part IV. New Voices, New Visions: 21. Michel Deguy, 'Le Métronome' (1993) Béatrice Bonhomme; 22. Bernard Heidsieck, 'Poème-partition B2B3' (1965) Jean-Pierre Bobillot; 23. Jacques Réda, 'L'Incorrigible' (1995) Susan Harrow; 24. Bernard Noël, 'États de l'air' (1983) Andrew Rothwell; 25. Jacques Roubaud, 'Dès que je me lève' (1986) Meryl Tyers; 26. Marie-Claire Bancquart, 'Essentiel' (1986) Shirley Jordan; 27. Nguyên Hoàng Bào Viêt, 'Anne Frank' (1980) Thanh-Vân Ton-That; 28. Claude Esteban, 'Ils sont riches…' (1999) Robert W. Greene; 29. Gérard Titus-Carmel, 'Or battant...' (2006) Michael Bishop; 30. Jean-Michel Maulpoix, 'Bleu ne fait pas de bruit' (1992) Laure Helms; 31. Amina Saïd, 'Trois continents dérivent' (1988) Rosemary Lloyd; 32. Pierre Alferi, 'Une défense de la poésie' (1997) Michael Sheringham; Afterword: reading twentieth-century French verse Clive Scott; Biographies of the poets; Glossary; Select bibliography; Index.

'If the poet, in the words of Edouard Glissant, is a 'visionnaire du concret', this volume of close readings explores poetry as utterance situated between dream and reality without ascribing a mission to the poet or attempting to unearth hidden subtexts. These marvellously read poems follow the major currents of twentieth century French and Francophone literature and go a long way to fulfilling the editors' desires to forge a new alliance between readers and poets.' J. Michael Dash, New York University