It is a more or less accepted truth that the last hundred years of European poetry have been marked by a process of radical change in the structure of the poetic phrase. The logical or “understandable” sequence of words has proved to be less and less in favor with the poets, and a new aesthetics based upon the purely emotional appeal of words has emerged. That process reached its peak in Dada and surrealist movements, and seems to be parallel with the antirationalist trends in philosophy.

To pronounce such a judgment does not mean dismissing modern poetry as modest in its achievements or deprived of meaning. Nevertheless, living in a changing world, we are compelled to evaluate the present developments in the name of the future, or of what we imagine the future of poetry will be. We can assume that the serious setback suffered lately by surrealism and kindred literary schools in Europe signifies the poets' desire to trim the overgrown garden of words. There is undoubtedly a tendency to revise once more the past, and to accept the usefulness of some older techniques scorned by the followers of Father Brémond's poésie pure.