SOURCE: "St.-John Perse," in Modern Language Quarterly, Vol. XXI, No. 3, September, 1960, pp. 235-38.

In the following essay, Colt discusses the influence of Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophy on Léger's work.

Appraisals of St.-John Perse, the French poet, by American critics leave one with the double impression of their high estimation of the man and their inability to come to grips with his work. For example, the reviews of Amers, Perse's latest work, give clear evidence that the poetry has eluded the commentators in a surprising way. When we are not being told that "in the world of Seamarks the sea is central," we read that "the pseudonym of the poet, after the Roman Persius, is as vague and evocative as his poetry" (italics mine) or that Perse "creates absolute metaphors whose effectiveness owes little to reference. Such images as 'the white bitches of disaster capped with gold'...