Guillaume Apollinaire Quotes

French poet (1880–1918)

Guillaume Apollinaire (26 August 1880 – 9 November 1918) was a French poet, playwright, short story writer, novelist, and art critic of Polish descent who was hugely influential as a Modernist poet and as a spokesman for the Cubist painters. His original name appears in many forms along the lines of Wilhelm Albert Vladimir Apollinaris Kostrowitzky or Wąż-Kostrowicki.

From: Wikiquote (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Pen Names: Fernand Laviet

Alternative Names: Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki • Wilhelm Apollinaris de Kostrowitzki • Guillaume Apolinaire • Guillaume de Kostrowisky • Wilhelm Apollinaris de Kostrowitzky • Guillaume De Kostrowisky • Guillaume Albert Wladimir Alexandre Apollinaire de Kostrowitzky • Wilhelm Albert Wladimir Alexander Apollinaris de Kostrowitzky • Guillaume Albert Vladimir Alexandre Apollinaire de Kostrowicky • Guillaume Apollinaire (Wilhelm Apollinaris De Kostrowitski) • Kostrowicka • Kostro • Apollinaire, Guillaume

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The poems I am writing at the moment will be much closer to your present way of thinking.I am trying to renew poetic style,but within a classical framework.On the other hand,I don't want to lapse into imitating others.Letter to Picasso 1918

Nous voulons explorer la bonté contrée énorme où tout se tait

From this new alliance – for until now costume and scenery on one hand, choreography on the other, have been linked only artificially – there has resulted in Parade a kind of sur-réalisme.

Je passais au bord de la Seine
Un livre ancien sous le bras
Le fleuve est pareil à ma peine
Il s'écoule et ne tarit pas
Quand donc finira la semaine

Now and then it's good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy.

Geometry is to the plastic arts what grammar is to the art of the writer.

O pretty ship, my memory
Isn't this far enough to sea,
And the sea not fit to drink?
Haven't we drifted far and lost
From fair dawn to dreary dusk?

A la fin tu es las de ce monde ancien
Bergère ô tour Eiffel le troupeau des ponts bêle ce matin
Tu en as assez de vivre dans l'antiquité grecque et romaine

O mouths humanity seeks a new language
Beyond the reach of grammarians