Jacques Prévert (1900-1977):

Life
 Associated with the Surrealists, notably Louis Aragon and André Breton, from 1925 to 1929.
 Was a member of the Rue du Château group along with Raymond Queneau and Marcel
Duhamel
 Was known particularly for his screenplays during the 1930s and 1940s.
 He wrote a massive sum of poetry estimated at about 1,500 pages, which he was infamously
terrible at preserving and keeping track of
 Visited the U.S.S.R. in 1933 with a group of politically active dramatists

Poetry
 He wanted to bring back the ancient form of oral poetry, composing ballads of love and hope.
 His most famous collections are Paroles (1945), Histoires (1946), Spectacle (1951), Grand
bal du printemps (1951), Charmes de Londres (1952), and others.
 He utilized easy classical symbols which relate love to different elements in nature.
 He was a poet of French cinema, writing works that resonated with everyday people
 His poetry is characterized by:
o Highly expressive idioms and wordplay with unambiguous meaning
o Humor that catches the reader off guard, iconoclastic remarks, and rejection of
hypocrisy in the established tradition
o Puns, lists, antithesis, irregular verse

Source:
“Jacques Prevert.” Poetry Foundation. 2020. www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/jacques-prevert.
Date Accessed 19 April 2020.
“Jacques Prévert.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. 8 April 2020.
www.britannica.com/biography/Jacques-Henri-Marie-Prevert. Date Accessed 19 April 2020.
 Jacques Prévert
Barbara
Rappelle-toi Barbara
Il pleuvait sans cesse sur Brest ce jour-là
Et tu marchais souriante
Épanouie ravie ruisselante
Sous la pluie
Rappelle-toi Barbara
Il pleuvait sans cesse sur Brest
Et je t'ai croisée rue de Siam
Tu souriais
Et moi je souriais de même
Rappelle-toi Barbara
Toi que je ne connaissais pas
Toi qui ne me connaissais pas
Rappelle-toi
Rappelle-toi quand même ce jour-là
N'oublie pas
Un homme sous un porche s'abritait
Et il a crié ton nom
Barbara
Et tu as couru vers lui sous la pluie
Ruisselante ravie épanouie
Et tu t'es jetée dans ses bras
Rappelle-toi cela Barbara
Et ne m'en veux pas si je te tutoie
Je dis tu à tous ceux que j'aime
Même si je ne les ai vus qu'une seule fois
Je dis tu à tous ceux qui s'aiment
Même si je ne les connais pas
Rappelle-toi Barbara
N'oublie pas
Cette pluie sage et heureuse 31
Sur ton visage heureux
Sur cette ville heureuse
4 Cette pluie sur la mer
Sur l'arsenal
Sur le bateau d'Ouessant 36
Oh Barbara
Quelle connerie la guerre
Qu'es-tu devenue maintenant
Sous cette pluie de fer
De feu d'acier de sang
12 Et celui qui te serrait dans ses bras
Amoureusement
Est-il mort disparu ou bien encore vivant 44
Oh Barbara
Il pleut sans cesse sur Brest
Comme il pleuvait avant
Mais ce n'est plus pareil et tout est abimé
C'est une pluie de deuil terrible et désolée
20 Ce n'est même plus l'orage
De fer d'acier de sang
Tout simplement des nuages 52
Qui crèvent comme des chiens
Des chiens qui disparaissent
Au fil de l'eau sur Brest
Et vont pourrir au loin
Au loin très loin de Brest
28 Dont il ne reste rien. 58
 The musical nature of the poem is interesting because there’s no set rhyme or pattern. Prévert
mixes and rearranges lines and it’s hard to say exactly why it works. Like the imagery of a
rain-soaked Brest, Prévert uses the musicality in a two-fold manner. The lovers embracing in
the rain is a tender scene fitting of the fun wordplay and silly repetitions; however, the tune
grows dire and ironic when the ruin of war creeps in. Suddenly, the call for Barbara to
remember the good times is given its serious context which clashes with Prévert’s lyricism.
 Listening to the performance of the poem by the group Les Frères Jacques helped me
understand a bit better where the sounds of the poem suddenly line up out of the chaos of the
irregular verse. I went back and highlighted the rhymes and consonance, and this helped pick
out the key phonemes that lay the foundation of the poem as well as the portions of
experimentation. The consonance of the sharp t, rhyme on the French u, and parallel lines in
the section discussing the tutoie is particularly inventive.
 « Il pleuvait sans cesse sur Brest » is full of delightful consonance. The s sound hits in waves
similarly to gusts of rain and wind in a torrential downpour, and the included –ait appears as
the second most plentiful vowel sound in the poem. Additionally, a subtle contrast is created
with line 46 where the present tense « pleut » sits uncomfortably in the line. It is not as fun as
the imperfect conjugation and adds to the dismal quality towards the end of the poem.
 Prévert was smart to choose sounds that are easily rendered in the French language. He most
likely gave the name Barbara to a girl inspired from memories or purely invented, and it rhymes
with a plethora of pronouns, prepositions, and nouns in French. The story-like form, using
l’imparfait, aids in creating a kind of innocence at the beginning of the poem, and rhymes
easily with most adjectives in French. Only with these smart decisions could Prévert craft such
a tight, lyrical verse.
 I found it entertaining that lines 4 and 21 have the same words, but they are reordered to make
the rhyme with « souriante » and the double rhyme with « pluie ». It ties the poem together
like there is a mastermind of words crafting the verses who knows what he wants to say far in
advance. I think it’s fascinating that a poet can write and rewrite a verse, a privilege compared
to the temporal progression of the audience discovering the words for the first time. Generally,
it is very simple thing to go back and tweak a few lines to achieve such an effect, but it’s quite
delightful and I’m surprised more poets have not used it.
 In addition to the wordplay for which Prévert is famous, this poem is specifically full of
anadiplosis, repeating a word at the end of one verse to start the next, such as in lines 53 and
54. Additionally, epistrohpe, the general repetition of a word at the end of several verse,
appears in the poem such as lines 12-13, lines 25 and 27, and lines 31-33. This repetition is not
contrived, but produces a kind of skipping effect for the poem. The lines flow and relate to one
another like a dancer’s footwork.
 I boxed « Amoureusement » because it sticks out. It’s the only long adverb in the poem and
with « Barbara », it is one of two single-word lines. Isolating the word as Prévert does really
hammers home the sense of loss in the second half of the poem.
 Jacques Prévert
Déjeuner du Matin

Il a mis le café Dans le cendrier

Dans la tasse Sans me parler
Il a mis le lait Sans me regarder
Dans la tasse de café 4 Il s'est levé 20
Il a mis le sucre Il a mis
Dans le café au lait Son chapeau sur sa tête
Avec la petite cuiller Il a mis
Il a tourné 8 Son manteau de pluie 24
Il a bu le café au lait Parce qu'il pleuvait
Et il a reposé la tasse Et il est parti
Sans me parler Sous la pluie
Il a allumé 12 Sans une parole 28
Une cigarette Sans me regarder
Il a fait des ronds Et moi j'ai pris
Avec la fumée Ma tête dans ma main
Il a mis les cendres 16 Et j’ai pleuré. 32

 This work is useful for understanding the popularity of Prévert. He avoids anything that
obscures the emotion of a piece, and manages to reach something to which every person can
relate. Poetry in the public eye is sometimes seen as inaccessible or hard to understand because
poets have obscured and abstracted their emotions through their craft. Prévert takes this same
ambiguity and reshapes it so that his poem can resonate from almost any angle. Are they in a
loveless marriage? Did the woman cheat on the man and now regrets it? Are they strangers in
a café? Is he an abuser? Is he physically present or just a memory? The commonality between
them all is the heartbreak and tragedy that is so deftly woven into the narrative.
 I listened to a reading of the poem by Serge Reggianai (wheatoncollege.edu/vive-
voix/titres/dejeuner-du-matin/), and I also watched a short film depicting the events of the
poem (youtube.com/watch?v=I4YoBuJCbfo). Both excellently conveyed how hard these
words are. The tension between the two characters is so uncomfortable, and the lack of
resolution sits heavy after the last line.
 Prévert is a master of incorporating rhetorical devices, opening the poem with an anaphora that
drags out the preparation of the coffee. I interpreted the poem as an unspoken conflict between
a husband and wife, and the meticulous description of the coffee, milk, and sugar seemed a
characteristically masculine coping mechanism. The hyper focus on what can be controlled is
something I do, often when processing emotions is too exhausting or confusing. I’ve deep
cleaned my entire house to avoid confronting this kind of a problem.
 Jacques Prévert
Le Cancre
Il dit non avec la tête
mais il dit oui avec le cœur
il dit oui à ce qu’il aime
il dit non au professeur 4
il est debout
on le questionne
et tous les problèmes sont posés
soudain le fou rire le prend 8
et il efface tout
les chiffres et les mots
les dates et les noms
les phrases et les pièges 12
et malgré les menaces du maître
sous les huées des enfants prodiges
avec les craies de toutes les couleurs
sur le tableau noir du malheur 16
il dessine le visage du bonheur.

 This one is pretty short and easy to understand. The kind of “dunce” or “class clown” described
is common to classrooms around the globe, and Prévert understands that even if someone was
a good student, the perspective of a “bad student” carries significance and a moral.
 Prévert opens the poem with an antimetabole, a rhetorical device with an ABBA pattern of
repeated words meant to effectively create contrast. The poet’s use of similar devices in all the
poems studied so far effectively works with the short, irregular verses of poetry and adds to
their accessibility.
 The use of the word « prodiges » is a bit of hyperbole meant to emphasize the gulf in
ability/work ethic between the regular students and that of our protagonist. Their mockery,
along with that of the instructor, is used to show that the education system often abandons and
ostracizes struggling students or those who think differently.
 The ideas of this poem are not particularly ground-breaking, but they are clear. It is a nice
introductory poem for French students or those learning French that has an uplifting message.
Even when one is mocked, scorned, made to feel alone, and intentionally tricked, there is a
kind of personal happiness that cannot be touched. Saying “yes” to what one loves is truer than
playing into a system that does not know and does not care.