| Author Quoted | Saint-John Perse |
| Title Quoted | Excile: and other Poems |
| Date (Year/Month/Day) | 1957/09/22 |
| Imprint | [S.l.] : [s.n.]. 1949 |
| Quotation | I wonder if it is a sin against poverty to read the poems of St. John Perse. They are magnificent. Immensely rich. To read such poems is to be a millionaire, to live in splendor. Your heart becomes a palace, full of all that is fine in the world. Exile, the first that I read, my discovery, months ago, I still like the best. More perfect and spontaneous delight in Crusoe-moves one more personally, more intimately. Such joy in reading it. Only Stages has let me down a little so far-it is halting and does not have the sustained grandeur of the rest |
| Journal | A Search for Solitude: Pursuing the Monk's True Life. The Journals of Thomas Merton, Volume 3, 1952-1960.; Edited by Lawrence S. Cunningham. / San Francisco : Harper Collins. 1996, p. 120-21 |
| Link to Merton's Copy |
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