Baudelaire laid the foundations for prose poetry in the 19th century, but it wasn't until the avant garde movement in thr first half of the 20th century that the prose poem began a widespread emergence on the international scene. The three poets in this volume were major factors in this emergence. Max Jacob (1876-1944) fills his work with word games, puns, and ambiguity that reveal his odd, comic and satiric way of looking at the world. "Pain and voluptuousness are often so close as to become one. Don't pursue this; it's one of those thoughts that, with an appearance of depth, do not really mean anything at all." Francis Ponge (1899-1988) has no use for Jacob's games. His restrained prose wants us to look at all that surrounds us, to respect and love it, so there can be a harmonious relationship between human and nonhuman. "It is clear I am a plant, a small branch, a leaf from one of those regions [of my childhood].

" Jean Follain (1903-1971) also looks at what surrounds us, but he uses that as a jumping off point for imagistic leaps. "One day I suddenly notice this object within my sight for ten years and which in fact I had never truly seen. The bowl was once washed by chattering maidservants surrounded by clouds and vapors, framed in glints of copper and tin." Book jacket.