Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, HOMAGE TO GUILLAUME APOLLINAIRE, by FREDERIC SAUSER


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HOMAGE TO GUILLAUME APOLLINAIRE, by             Poem Explanation         Poet's Biography
First Line: The bread is rising
Last Line: And they all speak the language of apollinaire
Alternate Author Name(s): Cendrars, Blaise


The bread is rising
France
Paris
An entire generation
I address the poets who were there
Friends
Apollinaire is not dead
You followed an empty hearse
Apollinaire is a magus
He's the one who was smiling in the silk of the flags at the windows
He enjoyed throwing you flowers and wreaths
While you walked behind the hearse
Then he bought a little three-colored cockade
I saw him that same night demonstrating on the boulevards
He was astride the hood of an American truck and waving an enormous
international flag spread out like an airplane
LONG LIVE FRANCE


The times change
The years roll by like clouds
The soldiers have gone back home
To the houses
Where they live
And look a new generation is rising
The dream of the BREASTS is coming true!
Little French children, half English, half black, half Russian, a bit
Belgian, Italian, Annamite, Czech
One with a Canadian accent, another with Hindu eyes
Teeth face bones joints lines smile bearing
They all have something foreign about them and are still part of us
Among them, Apollinaire, like that statue of the Niles, the father of
the waters, stretched out with kids that flow all over him
Between his feet, under his arms, in his beard
They look like their father and go their own way
And they all speak the language of Apollinaire






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