Author: Paul Verlaine
Profile: Paul Verlaine was a French poet. He was associated with the Decadent Movement and the Symbolist Movement. In French and international poetry, Paul is considered to be one of the greatest representatives of the fin de siècle. He was born in Metz, France and died in Paris, France. Mathilde Maute de Fleurville has been his spouse.
He completed his education at the Lycee Imperial Bonaparte in Paris and then took up a post in the civil service. At a very young age, Paul started writing poetry and was influenced by the Parnassien Movement and Leconte de Lisle, its leader. ‘La Revue du progress’, is Paul’s first poem published in the year 1863. Paul visited the salon of Marquise de Ricard located at 10 Boulevard des Batignolles and many other social venues, very frequently where he came in contact with a number of well known artistic figures including Villiers de I’Isle-Adam – the cynical antibourgeois idealist, Charles Cros – the humorist and inventor-poet, Francois Coppee, Theodore de Banville, Jose-Maria de Heredia and many others.
Writing style: Paul Verlaine’s genre includes Symbolist and Decadent.
Published Texts:
Works in French (original)
1964 – Libretti for Vaucochard et FIls 1 and Fisch-Ton-Kan
1866 – Poems saturniens
1867 – Les Amies
1869 – Clair de Lune
1869 – Fetes galantes
1870 – La Bonne Chanson
1874 – Romances sans paroles
1880 – Sagesse
1884 – Les Poetes maudits
1884 – Jadis et naguere (Verlaine)
1886 – Les Memoires d’un veuf
1888 – Amour
1888 – A Louis ll de Baviere
1889 – Parallelement
1890 – Dedicaces
1890 – Femmes
1891 – Hombres
1891 – Bonheur
1891 – Mes hopitaux
1891 – Chansons pour elle
1892 – Liturgies intimes
1893 – Mes prisons
1893 – Elegies
1893 – Odes en son honneur
1894 – Dans les limbes
1894 – Epigrammes
1895 – Confessions
Works in English (Translation)
Chansons pour elle – Songs for Her & Odes in Her Honor (poetry)
Poemes saturniens – Poems Under Saturn (poetry)
Odes en son honneur – Songs for Her & Odes in Her Honor (poetry)
Romances sans paroles –Songs Without Words (poetry)
Mes hopitaux – My Hospitals & My Prisons (autobiography)
Mes prisons – My Hospitals & My Prisons (autobiography)
Awards and Acknowledgements:
The home ‘The House of Verlaine’, at his birthplace in Metz is converted to a museum dedicated to his artwork and life.
He indulged in alcoholism, drug addiction and lived in poverty in his last days however the love and support people gave helped him a lot. After his early poetry was discovered again and people began admiring him for his strange behavior and lifestyle, he was elected Prince of Poets by his peers in France in the year 1894.
Sainte-Beuve comment’s on Paul’s work, Poemes saturniens (1866) has established him as a poet of originality and promise.
