SOURCE: LaCharité, Virginia A. “Conclusion: 1962-1966: A Poetics of Renewal.” In The Poetics and the Poetry of René Char, pp. 195-206. Chapel Hill, N.C.: The University of North Carolina Press, 1968.

In the following essay, LaCharité develops an interpretation of Char's poetic philosophy and the poet's works from 1962 to 1966.

René Char's poetics and poetry form an integral whole which reflects the development of his discovery of the cosmic totality which characterizes all existence. His work from Les Cloches sur le coeur to La Parole en archipel elucidates this fusion of opposites through the examination of man, nature, and the role of the poet. In his examination of each subject, Char finds that Poetry contains the solution, that is, Poetry overcomes contradiction and fragmentation. Poetry is the common fact of truth and being; it is the principle of unity, the “commune présence” in which each element and each...