On the basis of the French text and a translation that is at once accurate and poetical, this book provides an introduction to the poem, Le Cimetière marin, an

Poems ranging from "La Jeune Parque" and "Le Cimetière marin" to occasional and light verse written as letters to friends, dedications in books, and inscriptio

The poem, set in the cemetery at Sète (where Valéry himself is now buried), is a meditation on death. At first the narrator observes the calm sea under the bl