Louis Aragon was a buddy of André Breton who also played a big part in founding the Surrealist movement in the mid-1920s. Before that, he was involved with Dada. He was also (like a bunch of these Surrealists guys) super brave, politically active, and all-around awesomesauce.

He was a poet, novelist, and journalist, and was a member of the Communist Party for most of his life. During World War II, he joined the French Resistance to fight Nazism and German occupation of France.

"The Free Zone" (1940)

Soupault was a political guy (he was a Communist and a member of the French Resistance, after all), and so a lot of his poetry deals with the legacy of World War II. This poem refers to the partition of France under Nazi occupation. The "Free Zone" or "zone libre" was in southern France. It was the section of the country that continued to be under French rule until 1942, when the German and Italian armies invaded and effectively took over the whole country.

The poem is about the loss of liberty and sovereignty. Through the speaker's personal reflections, we also experience the trauma that the Nazi occupation of France occasioned. Who could have thought that fighting for freedom could be so surreal, eh?

"The Red Poster" (1956)

"The Red Poster" is a poem commemorating a group of Resistance fighters who fought the Nazis during World War II in France. More than twenty members of the group were either executed by the Nazis or killed in combat.

The "Poster" that the poem refers to was an actual historical poster that the Nazis issued showing the Resistors as a group of "terrorists." The poem celebrates the Resistors and pays homage to their courage. We'll say. Way to stand up to those Nazis, duders.

Chew On This

Aragon's poem "The Free Zone" deals with the trauma of World War II.

Aragon's "The Red Poster" also deals with World War II, commemorating Resistance fighters who were executed during the war.