L'importance de l'axe vertical dans Chants d'ombre de Senghor

This article deals with both the aesthetics and the socio-political dimensions of Senghor's poetry and explores the relationship between the poetics of travel and ideas on action and political involvement. It examines the vertical axis, which represents the 'ideal' and allows the poet to rise above life and men, and the horizontal axis, which symbolizes action and gives the poet a point of exit from the 'idealising' axis. The poet travels vertically through voyages on hills and in the sky and meditates on the meaning of life before returning to earth towards the plains and men in order to carry out what he has learned. The voyage upwards equally represents the search for purity and purification, a necessary step for Senghor who attempts to establish his identity through association with an authentic Africa.