Métamorphoses du poète dans « Le Poète assassiné » d’Apollinaire : Apollon et Orphée, oursin et laurier

This article focuses on the figure of the poet in Apollinaire’s « Le Poète assassiné ». We try to show the connections that are established between loss and poetic glory. In the tale, the hero, Croniamantal, becomes successively Apollo and Orpheus. As in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, he is going to lost his beloved (story of Apollo and Daphne) before being slaughtered (the death of Orpheus). To reach glory, the poet has to sacrifice everything including himself.