Experiments with new verbal techniques, theories on the relation between dream and reality, and the free expression of thought processes produced Capitale de la douleur, his first important work, which was followed by La Rose publique and Les Yeux fertiles.
The poems in these volumes are generally considered the best to have come out of the Surrealist movement.
After the Spanish Civil War Éluard abandoned Surrealist experimentations and his late work reflected his political militance and a deepening of his underlying attitudes: the rejection of tyranny, the search for happiness, which lead him to join the Communist Party in 1942.
After the war his Tout dire and Le Phénix added, in simple language and vivid imagery, to the great body of French popular lyrical poetry.
