1918 Armistice

The 1918 Armistice is recalled through a poignant account of Apollinaire’s death on the day it took place. Rather than narrating the Armistice’s broader history, the passage links the date to a crowd’s cry, a dying poet’s delirium, and the narrator’s later reflections on Gertrude Stein.

The Armistice as a remembered date

The narrator recalls Gertrude Stein’s account of Apollinaire dying on the day of the 1918 Armistice. The date gives the death a place in the public moment of the Armistice, but the passage offers no further description of the event itself. Its focus is the human misunderstanding contained within Stein’s story.

Apollinaire and the crowd

As recalled, a crowd shouted “à bas Guillaume,” while Apollinaire, delirious, thought they were crying against him. The passage places the crowd’s public cry beside the poet’s private misapprehension; it does not explain the circumstances behind the chant or establish more about what the crowd intended.

The recollection’s place in the narrative

The narrator remembers Stein speaking beautifully of Apollinaire and his death while walking home after she has called the younger generation lost. The memory helps complicate his response to her: he thinks of the warmth and affection of their friendship and resolves to serve her and see that her work receives justice. The Armistice thus enters the passage not as a developed historical episode, but as part of a recollection that draws grief, public speech, and the narrator’s loyalty to Stein together.