Central Heating Analysis

The poem has no set rhyme or rhythm scheme. That means that Reverdy was free to do what he liked with the form of the poem. That doesn't mean, however, that it's arranged helter-skelter on the page...

We don't hear too much about the speaker in this poem, so it's up to us to leap from what we read in the poem to a picture of who we think is talking to us. Ready to jump? First up, an assumption:...

While we know that Reverdy was in Paris when he wrote this poem, it seems that the setting of this poem, for the most part, is inside the mind of our speaker. We jump around, following his eyes and...

We're going to have to trust our translator a little bit on this one, because the poem as it is in English surely sounds different than it did in French. For example, the title of the poem in Frenc...

This poem's title ties the whole poem together with a metaphor. The poem explores different ways to view the heart and body as powered by a metaphorical central heating system. The system is kickin...

Reverdy was one of the major players in the rise of Surrealism, a literary and artistic movement that stressed the importance of dreamlike, surprising imagery. Surrealism attempted to connect the s...

This is not a simple poem. You'll need some serious concentration when you read it, and it's probably not going to come through clearly in just one read. It jumps from image to image, and has a lot...

Reverdy was buddies with such art greats as Pablo Picasso. (Source.) A contemporary called Reverdy one of "the purest of the writers of his time." (Source.)Reverdy was something of a recluse, and l...

There's nothing explicit in this poem, but there's definitely a love affair happening. Sure, it may not be red hot, but there's definitely warmth here, and the suggestion of lust.