However, by the time the first proofs were being corrected in the autumn, Apollinaire decided to change the title from Eau de Vie in favor of Alcools.
He worked carefully on both the texts (not hesitating to transplant sections from one to another) and the overall arrangement of the collection, whose heterogenous appearance conceals a true editorial reflection[3].
[5] With its alternation of elegiac and humorous pieces, as well as ones that differ in length (for example, Cantor consists of a single verse), Alcools at first glance presents a deliberately heterogenous aspect.
[5] The total absence of punctuation throughout the collection, adopted at the last minute by Apollinaire during the correction of the proofs, has generated much fascination, particularly to trace the anteriority of this innovation.
France Culture, June 20 2022.In the years following the publication of Alcools, and especially after the death of Guillaume Apollinaire, a controversy emerged concerning the numerous similarities between the poem Zone, which opens the collection, and Les Pâques à New-York (Easter in New York) by Blaise Cendrars.
The reconstruction of the chronology, textual analysis of the genesis of the two poems, research, and notes by the respective authors seem to indicate that Apollinaire was indeed inspired, voluntarily or not, by Les Pâques for the final version of Zone, particularly with regard to the total absence of punctuation that Apollinaire (who practiced it since 1912 with Vendémiaire) applied to Zone and extended to all of the poems of Alcools.
[6] In the French literary scene, within which Apollinaire then appeared, depending on the point of view, the publication had a great impact as a provocateur or leader of a modernist movement.
[1] The most virulent critics evoke the cosmopolitan origins of the author or take inspiration from the title of the collection to speak of drunkenness.
It is only through the holes of a shabby chasuble that one can barely see the ironic and candid gaze of the merchant, who is at once a Levantine Jew, a South American, a Polish gentleman and a facchino."
[1] In the long run, the admirers (including Paul Léautaud, Max Jacob, Blaise Cendrars, Pierre Reverdy, Francis Carco, Jean Royére, the Surrealists, and the Rochefort School) would win their case.
The poems of Alcools, which became the manifesto of modern poetry,[3] would be set to music by Arthur Honnegger and Francis Poulenc, and sung by Léo Ferré and Yves Montand.