The Anchor’s Long Chain: The Seagull Library of French Literature

An experiment with the sonnet form by one of the foremost French poets of his generation.

Yves Bonnefoy has wowed the literary world for decades with his diffuse volumes.

First published in France in 2008, The Anchor’s Long Chain is an indispensable addition to his oeuvre.

Enriching Bonnefoy’s earlier work, the volume, translated by Beverley Bie Brahic, also innovates, including an unprecedented sequence of nineteen sonnets.

These sonnets combine the strictness of the form with the freedom to vary line length and create evocative fragments.

Compressed, emotionally powerful, and allusive, the poems are also autobiographical—only in glimpses.

Throughout, Bonnefoy conjures up life’s eternal questions with each new poem.