SOURCE: Naughton, John T. “The Notion of Presence in the Poetics of Yves Bonnefoy.” Studies in 20th Century Literature 13, no. 1 (winter 1989): 43-60.

In the following essay, Naughton considers the notion of presence as a unifying element of Bonnefoy's poetry as well as a recurring topic of critical discussion.

The notion of presence is a common element, linking Yves Bonnefoy's earliest pronouncements about poetry to his latest. Just as the polarity between incarnation and excarnation has helped to clarify his poetics, so too the idea of presence, together with its opposite, absence, is useful for an understanding not only of Bonnefoy's conception of poetry, but also, to a certain extent, of the poetic texts themselves. The emergence of what Bonnefoy calls “presence” creates the “true place,” as he says; providing centrality, it invests the world with irrefutable significance and coherence, although at the moment these certainties are lived outside...