“Sonnet en –yx”, or “Sonnet en X”, is a poem by Stéphane Mallarmé, published in his Poésies of 1887. The title conventionally given to the poem refers to its unusual rhyme scheme that incorporates six words ending in the phoneme [iks]. It is also known by its first line, “Ses purs ongles très haut…”. An earlier version of the poem, “Sonnet allégorique de lui-même” (1868), exists in draft form; the self-referential title of this earlier version has been used to shed light on the reflexivity that also characterises his revised “Sonnet en –yx”. Both versions of the poem are reproduced in Mallarm&…
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Citation: Etheridge, Kate. "Sonnet en -yx". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 21 February 2017 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=11324, accessed 22 November 2024.]