The image of an eroded stone on which writing represents no longer a text but a mere trace revealing a human passage is a major theme in the works of the Francophone poet Philippe Jaccottet. On the one hand, the written stone appears as a visual analogon of the poetical discourse, depriving it of its sacred immortal aura and announcing prophetically its approaching death. On the other hand, its dullness and its density express symbolically the challenge that the subject launches against death, justifying Jaccottet’s predilection for the mineral imagery as a metapoetic element.

The image of an eroded stone on which writing represents no longer a text but a mere trace revealing a human passage is a major theme in the works of the Francophone poet Philippe Jaccottet. On the one hand, the written stone appears as a visual analogon of the poetical discourse, depriving it of its sacred immortal aura and announcing prophetically its approaching death. On the other hand, its dullness and its density express symbolically the challenge that the subject launches against death, justifying Jaccottet’s predilection for the mineral imagery as a metapoetic element.