Le parti pris des choses

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Le parti pris des chose is a book of prose poems by French poet and essayist Francis Ponge, first published in 1942. The title is most often translated into English as The Voice of Things, however it is also sometimes translated as The Way Things Are or The Nature of Things, perhaps to echo Lucretius, though the book's philosophical underpinnings are more often associated with phenomenology.

It contains 32 short to medium length poems. Each poem focuses on some item or event from everyday life—such as an orange, a potato, a snail, etc.—and describes it thoroughly and thoughtfully. Symbolism is not very often used in the book, as Ponge eschewed it, however some profound similes and metaphors can be found in certain poems, always with a clever linguistic twist which makes them more than simple similes and metaphors. The book is also significant for its use of synesthesia and especially onomatopoeia—onomatopoeia being of course profoundly related to the concept of "The Voice of Things".

See also: short prose