The fascination that French poetry exerted on Elytis is a force in his creative development to which he himself has frequently referred, but only in general terms. It has been described as the influence of "surrealism," but that in itself is an umbrella concept covering a great many different writers and approaches to poetry. To define the French influence we must look first at what overlap exists between the esthetic views of Elytis and those of his French contemporaries, and then see how far that common view of poetry is the controlling factor in Elytis's own poetic development. (p. 679)

In fact, what Elytis means when he aligns himself with the French surrealists is simply a) that he accepts the attempt to achieve an ideal world without giving up the values of the sensual world, and b) that he accepts the role of poetry as a revelatory medium rather...