Alcools – Guillaume Apollinaire

"Under the Mirabeau Bridge flows the Seine, And our loves."

Published in 1913, this collection bridges the gap between Symbolism and the avant-garde. Apollinaire abandons punctuation to create a fluid, modern rhythm. He celebrates the Eiffel Tower, the industrial city, and the pain of lost love, blending tradition with a shocking new modernity.

Alcools is a landmark of 20th-century poetry. With its innovative form and its embrace of the modern world, it set the stage for Surrealism and redefined what French poetry could be.