Amers [a.mɛʁ] is a collection of poetry by French writer Saint-John Perse, published in 1957.[1][2] Perse won the Nobel Prize in Literature three years later.[3]

Amers
First edition cover
AuthorSaint-John Perse
TranslatorWallace Fowlie
LanguageFrench
GenrePoetry
PublisherNouvelle Revue Française
Publication date
16 May 1957
Publication placeFrance
Published in English
1961
Pages187
ISBN2070256758
841.92
LC ClassPQ2623 .E386
Preceded byVents (1946) 
Followed byChronique (1960) 

The title means "sea marks" (points used to navigate at sea, both manmade and natural); it possibly puns on the French amer(s), "bitter",[4][5] perhaps meaning "briny" here,[6] and has echoes of mer, "sea".[7]

Amers was ranked #97 in Le Monde's 100 Books of the Century.[8]

References

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  1. ^ Little, Roger (1969). "The Image of the Threshold in the Poetry of Saint-John Perse". The Modern Language Review. 64 (4): 777–792. doi:10.2307/3723920. JSTOR 3723920.
  2. ^ PERSE (pseud.), Saint John (November 9, 1964). "Amers. Seamarks ... Bilingual edition. Translation by Wallace Fowlie. (Second edition, third printing.) Fr. & Eng". Bollingen Foundation – via Google Books.
  3. ^ "The Nobel Prize in Literature 1960". NobelPrize.org.
  4. ^ Knodel, Arthur J. (1958). "Prolific the Image, and the Metre, Prodigal". The Hudson Review. 11 (3): 437–442. doi:10.2307/3848620. JSTOR 3848620.
  5. ^ Fowlie, Wallace (November 1, 2010). Poem and Symbol: A Brief History of French Symbolism. Penn State Press. ISBN 978-0271038131 – via Google Books.
  6. ^ Guicharnaud, Jacques; Beckelman, June (1958). "Vowels of the Sea: Amers, by Saint-John Perse". Yale French Studies (21): 72–82. doi:10.2307/2928996. JSTOR 2928996.
  7. ^ Little, Roger. "The Image of the Threshold in the Poetry of Saint-John Perse." The Modern Language Review 64, no. 4 (1969): 777-92. Accessed February 4, 2020. doi:10.2307/3723920.
  8. ^ "Les 100 livres du vingtième siècle d'après Le Monde - Liste de 95 livres - SensCritique". www.senscritique.com.