"[Cocteau's] early years are dominated by the ballet; then comes the theater, and also fiction; and finally films: that is to say, predominantly the visual media, conjuring up spectacles. As noted before, he classified all these activities as poetry: (just plain) poésie, poésie de théâtre, poésie du roman, poésie cinématographique, even poésie critique.

So he was primarily a poet of the spectacle: the circus, the parade. He is like a harlequin leading the parade in Fellini's Clowns. One of his finest contributions to the 'idea' of the theater in the twentieth century was the distinction, articulated in 1921 in his preface to the ballet scenario for Les mariés de la Tour Eiffel, between 'poésie de théâtre' [theater poetry] and 'la poésie du théâtre' [poetry in the theatre]. With this formula he entered the lists of the advocates of a new kind of theater-poetry, in contrast to the verse-theater favored by T. S. Eliot or Christopher Fry, some fifteen to twenty years later."

— Walter A. Strauss, from "Jean Cocteau: The Difficulties of Being Orpheus," in Reviewing Orpheus: Essays on the Cinema and Art of Jean Cocteau, edited by Cornelia A. Tsakiridou

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Portrait of Jean Cocteau by André Papillon, 1939 (via)

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"Le fond de la mer a ses saisons. Comme sur la terre, le printemps est une des plus belles. Le corail bourgeonne et les éponges respirent l'eau bleue à pleins poumons. Une forêt de cerfs rouges écoute un bruit d’hélice. Il arrive de très haut dans les cieux de la mer. Il tombe lentement et se roule dans le sable. Les fleurs dorment debout et il y en a une foule qui diesent adieu. Les poissons manchots se posent dessus. Ils donnent de gros baisers à la mer. A cause de l'éclairage et du décor on se croirait souvent chez le photographe. Un panache de globules gazouille dans le coin. Il s'échappe du petit robinet qui change l'eau salée."

— Cocteau, "Le Printemps au fond de la mer," in Poésies