Stéphane Mallarmé, Sonnet en -yx

Kate Etheridge (Independent Scholar - Europe)

Ed. by Jennifer Yee, University of Oxford
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.5.2.05: French Writing and Culture: The Nineteenth-Century , 1800-1900.
Vol. editors: David Elwyn Evans (University of St Andrews), Edward Forman (University of Bristol), Elisabeth Gerwin (University of Lethbridge), Nigel Harkness (University of Newcastle upon Tyne), Tim Unwin (University of Bristol), David Williams (University of Sheffield), Jennifer Yee (University of Oxford)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1868

Places

France (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Sonnet

Resources

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“Sonnet en –yx”, or “Sonnet en X”, is a poem by Stéphane Mallarmé, published in his

Poésies

of 1887. The title conventionally given to the poem refers to its unusual rhyme scheme that incorporates six words ending in the phoneme [iks]. It is also known by its first line, “Ses purs ongles très haut…”. An earlier version of the poem, “Sonnet allégorique de lui-même” (1868), exists in draft form; the self-referential title of this earlier version has been used to shed light on the reflexivity that also characterises his revised “Sonnet en –yx”. Both versions of the poem are reproduced in Mallarmé’s

Œuvres complètes

(1998). At the centre of Mallarmé’s project is a profound interest in the make-up of words, including their sounds, their etymologies, and…

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1937 words

Citation: Etheridge, Kate. "Sonnet en -yx". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 21 February 2017 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=11324, accessed 20 April 2024.]

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