Poe's For Annie and Mallarm's Nuit d'Idume

Author(s): Jean Alexander

Source: MLN, Vol. 77, No. 5, General Issue (Dec., 1962), pp. 534-536
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3042667 .
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534

M L N

Poe's For Annie and Mallarme's Nuit d'Idumee

Although Baudelaire's intense dedication to Edgar Allan Poe has been
made largely comprehensible by the idea that Poe was Baudelaire's
spiritualbrother-theirpreoccupationsand theiranguish were remarkably
similar-it has been more difficultto explain the dedication of the frail,
reclusive Mallarme. The poetic debt to Poe is, of course, fully comprehensiblein Mallarme as in Baudelaire, but the intensityof personal feeling
has alwaysmystified
scholars. Unfortunately,
Mallarm6'scommentson Poe
and Poe's work are few and brief. We must judge largelyby Mallarm''s
actions-the long and painstaking process of translation,the persistent
correspondencewith Americanswho knew Poe and with English scholars
who were studyingPoe, the compositionof the Tomb of Poe in a style
verylike Poe's own, and the reportedconversationsat Mallarm6'sWednesdays,where Poe was enshrinedin conversation.
However, among Mallarm6's notes on the poems of Poe, one seems
particularlyrevealingand bringsus back to Mallarm6'sown consciousness.
Voila ce que fermeesddsormaisa la parole, prof?reraientles lMvres,oi
se pose et demeure l'6nigmatique sourire fundbre. La rdalisationde tel
miracle podtique a &t6 considdrdepar les experts,comme un defi que se
posa le genie. Si j'osais, une premierefois avant de terminerces notes,
une seule! porterun jugementen mon nom propre,je dirais que la poesie
de Poe n'est peut-etrejamais autant allee hors de tout ce que nous savons,
d'un rythmeapais6 et lointain, que dans ce chant; oi se montre,sous un
jour de convalescence,l'6tat d'un espritaux premieresheures de la mort.
Triomphe de la delivrance avec besoin de se reprendretout de suite A
quelque chose, meme les doux paradis terrestres
regrettes;bercementspar
l'essor et de plus choreshdsitations.1
This is Mallarm6's complete note on For Annie. At firstglance, one
accepts it complacently,because it seems merelyto prove that Mallarme
understoodPoe's work. Certainly,For Annie reveals "the state of mind
in the firsthours after death." The sentence that follows,however, is
deceptive: " Triumph of deliverance,with the need to take somethingup
again at once, even the sweet earthly paradises regretted .. ." The
accuracyof the firstpart of the sentencetends to overshadowthe errorof
the second part. What regretdid the spirithave in his coffin?
Forgetting,or never
Regretting,its rosesIts old agitations
Of myrtlesand roses:
1

St6phane Mallarm6, CEuvrescompletes,ed. Henri Mondor and G. Jean-Aubry

(Paris, 1945), pp. 243-44.

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M L N

535

In Poe's poem, there is no regretfor past joy, because the sweet earthly
love gradually becomes a transcendentvision of light and beauty. Although there is no question of mistranslation,Mallarme has interpreted
the drama as a process of delivery from the fever and the immediate
return of consciousnessto the dream of mortal happiness. Why has he
failed to note the transcendentalimplications? Apparently,to judge by
some analogous statementsin youthfulletters,Mallarme read For Annie
as a Symbolistpoem, almost as an allegoryof Mallarm6's own long, intermittentspiritualcrisis.
Much of our knowledge of Mallarm6's crisis of the spirit depends on
letters, for it occurred between 1867 and 1869 while Mallarme was
isolated fromhis literaryfriends. Henri Mondor, in his copious Vie de
Mallarme, suggestsmany contributingcauses-anxiety over money,illness,
daily martyrdomat the school, isolation from the literarylife of Parisbut he does not pretend to explain the experience itself. The most
revealing of Mallarm6's letters,those to Henri Cazalis, seem to describe
a processof mysticalpurgation. Mallarme wroteto Cazalis in May of 1867
of a " long descentinto Nothingness,"and of his arrival at a Divine Conception.2 The pattern of his descent and returnto being was described
nearlytwo yearslater:
. .. mon cerveau,envahi par le Reve, se refusanta ses fonctionsexttrieures
qui ne le sollicitaientplus, allait ptrir dans son insomnie permanente;
j'ai implore la grande Nuit, qui m'a exauc6 et a 6tendu ses ttntbres. La
premierephase de ma vie a etd finie.La conscience,exc~dde d'ombres,se
reveille, lentement,formantun homme nouveau, et doit retrouvermon
Reve apris la creationde ce dernier. Cela durera quelques anntes pendant
lesquelles j'ai a revivrela vie de l'humanitddepuis son enfanceet prenant
conscienced'elle-meme.3
This passage could almost be read as a gloss on Poe's poem. " My brain,
invaded by the Dream, declining the external functionswhich no longer
importunedit" paraphrases the firsttwo stanzas of For Annie.
And the fevercalled "Living"
Is conquered at last.
Mallarmd'sDream is Poe's "water that flows/Witha lullaby sound," for,
in a letter to Catulle Mendis in 1870, Mallarme spoke of his Dream as
a marine grotto.4Mallarm6's insomnia,which cannot be found explicitly
in the poem, translatesPoe's "fever" and "sighing." Mallarm6's great
Night is, of course, the state of death in the poem. The earthlyphase
a Stephane Mallarme, Propos sur la poesie, ed. Henri Mondor (Monaco, 1946),
p. 79.
3 Ibid., p. 87.
4 Henri Mondor, Vie de Mallarmd
(Paris, 1941), p. 295.

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536

M L N

of life,in both Mallarm6'sletterand Poe's poem, is the period of sensation,

passion, and striving.
Consciousness,slowlyawakening,createsa new man-the creaturefreed
of sensation and passion. In this new man, the impure consciousness,
with its feverand desire, has been transformedso that it perceives and
lives by the absolute. This is symbolicallypresented in For Annie by
the transformationof love from passion (" that horrible throbbing at
heart") to the adoration of pure light. Poe's light and Mallarme's Reve
are versionsof a mysticalabsolute.
However, in the last sentence quoted from Mallarm6's letter we see
a departurefromthe progressof Poe's poem. Mallarme's own experience
of the dark night of the soul appears to have guided-probably unconsciously-his interpretationof the resolution of For Annie. The "need
to take somethingup again at once, even the sweet earthly paradises
regretted" is thus determinedby Mallarm6's Reve. It has referenceto
Mallarmd'sconvalescence,in whichhe was to " relivethe life of humanity"
ratherthan to Poe's effortto convey an impressionof final bliss for the
estheticconsciousness.As poets have traditionallydone in attemptingto
communicatea sense of heavenlyjoy, Poe employsa love-imageto reveal
the spiritual assumption. In short,Mallarmd reads the journey of Poe's
narratoras a descent into the abyss, a deliverance from agony, and a
subsequentreturnto earthlylife,whereasPoe's poem shows the dead man
withdrawingfromearthlylife to rest finallyin an elysiumof beauty and
love.
transfigured
The distinctionis a delicate one, but significant.It enables us to look
for the source of Mallarm6's interpretationand to find a parallel in
Mallarm6's historywhich helps us to understandhis long and unfaltering reverencefor Poe. By a personallysymbolicinterpretation,Mallarme
has revealed to us that Poe was the secret sharer of the most significant
and profound experience of Mallarm6's life.
of Alberta
University

JEAN ALEXANDER

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