Poet-Prophet: Stages of Identity Creation in "Cortège"by Guillaume Apollinaire

Abstract

The theme of prophecy and the rapprochement between the poet and the prophet are present in a large number of texts by Guillaume Apollinaire. We analyze here the poem “Cortège”, immersion in a long fragmented walk which stages the physical and identity construction of the lyrical character through the others, while multiplying the references to the Christic journey. It is here the physical, material encounter with the other that serves to validate the poet's own existence and his creation by attributing demiurgic powers to him. These materialize in the creative act and the author becomes a prophet through his art, accomplishing the transposition, in the form of a poem, of the world he perceives through his five senses. To discover this perception of creation which passes through the construction of oneself and the discovery of the world, we wish to analyze in this article the stages of the creation of the identity of the "I" / "You" / "Guillaume" in the poem "Cortège" and demonstrate that this creation can be seen as the mimesis of the initiatory and prophetic journey.