In Mute Objects of Expression, Francis Ponge proclaims his goal: to accept the challenge which objects offer to language. Fortunately for the reader, these objects — less chosen than received spontaneously — are perceived with unique Pongean art and humor, in this volume growing out of the unoccupied southern Loire countryside where his family lived from 1940 to 1943. Ponge's poems recall the violent perfume of the mimosa, the cries of carnations, and the flirtations of wasps. He is bound to explore a shadowy town square glimpsed from a passing bus window. Ponge also agonizes over his own limitations: "Never ... to conquer this landscape of Provence? That would be too much!" Because of the wartime shortages, much of the book was drafted in a small notebook that made up his sole supply of paper.