"...And now, dear reader, for your intellectual toilet, here is a little piece of soap. Well handled, we guarantee it will be enough. Let us hold this magic stone." The poet Francis Ponge (1899-1988) occupied a significant and unchallenged place in French letters for over fifty years, attracting the[...]

One of the most significant French poets of the twentieth century--Francis Ponge--is treated in this study. The fundamental role of atomistic philosophy in Ponge's writings, especially as expressed in Lucretius's De Rerum Natura is discussed. Meadows is the first author to examine Ponge's writings i[...]

Francis Ponge boldly proclaims his poetic goal in Mute Objects of Expression: "To accept the challenge that objects offer to language." These objects--less chosen than received spontaneously--are perceived with inimitable Pongean humor and rendered into glimmering still lifes. He gives voice to the [...]