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ANDRÉ BRETON The most memorable thing about our meetings [around 1919-1920] was the almost complete bareness of the room in which Reverdy received us, usually on Sundays He lived at the top of Montmartre, rue Cortot, a stone’s throw from the rue des Saules Of the astonishing ‘climate’ that prevailed there, nothing could give a clearer picture than this remarkable description by Reverdy himself, at the opening of La Lucarne Ovale [1]:   At that time coal had become as precious and as rare as nuggets of gold, and I was writing in an attic where the snow, falling in through cracks in the ceiling, would turn blue Such force of expression has for me lost none of its beguiling charm It takes me back, instantly, to the heart of that verbal wizardry which, for us, was the preserve of Reverdy Only Aloysius Bertrand and Rimbaud had previously ventured so far down that path For my part, I loved and I love still – yes, love – this poetry that takes as its subject the vast swathes that halo everyday life, that haze of anxieties and intimations that flutter around our thoughts and actions From these he pruned as if at random, the rhythm he created appearing to be his sole tool, albeit one that never betrayed him; he was a marvel Reverdy was much more of a theorist than Apollinaire: he would even have been a master in our eyes had he been less impassioned in debate, more aware of the arguments with which we opposed him, though it is true that this passion made up a great part of his charm No one has reflected better, nor has known how to make others reflect, on the profound effects of poetry Nothing could hold greater importance later on than his ideas on poetic imagery Nor is there anybody who has shown such exemplary indifference to the ingratitude of fate   (Interviews with André Parinaud, ‘Le Point du Jour’, Gallimard, 1952)     LOUIS ARAGON A black sun has set in Solesmes When we were 20 (Soupault, Breton, Eluard and I), he embodied for us all that was pure in the world Our immediate elder, and the exemplary poet Life may well have ebbed between us, but it