Pierre-Jean Jouve(1887-1976)

French poet and novelist. Born of a bourgeois family. His weak health prevented him from studying at the university. First poems much in the style of Baudelaire and Mallarmé. Published pacifist texts during World War I and went through a deep identity crisis as a result. He rejected all he had written before and turned to spiritual poetry with profound religious dimensions. Married psychoanalyst Blanche Reverchon. Main novels : Paulina 1880 (1925), the story of a young woman torn between faith and pleasure ; Le Monde désert (1927), the story of the discovery of poetry, Hécate (1928) and Vagadu (1931), inspired by psychoanalysis. After 1931 Jouve spent most of his time writing poetry : Les Noces (1931), Sueur de sang (1935); La Vierge de Paris (1944), Matière Céleste (1937) and Kyrie (1938), all profoundly religious. Later poetry : Diadème (1949); Mélodrame (1957); Moires (1962).