All things, Ponge believes, yearn to express themselves, and they mutely await the coming of the word so that they may reveal the hidden depths of their being….

Everything in the world of Ponge is envisioned as an act of expression that is constantly in progress. In a sense, there are no acts that are not also essentially acts of language. The careful, microscopic observation of a thing by the poet, the detailed scrutiny of its "qualités différentielles," the naiveté and love with which he approaches the object, the intrusion by the poet's mind into the intimacy of the object's interior landscape, the generosity with which he surrenders his own being to its attraction, the total engagement of his mind and consciousness with the geography of the object—all these acts, which for Ponge constitute contemplation, occur through language and during the operation by which the...