Paul Verlaine summary

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Paul Verlaine, (born March 30, 1844, Metz, France—died Jan. 8, 1896, Paris), French lyric poet. After entering the civil service, he was first associated with the Parnassian poets, contributing to the first volume of the anthology Le Parnasse contemporain (1866). His early collections, Poèmes saturniens (1866), Fêtes galantes (1869), La Bonne chanson (1870), and Romances sans paroles (1874), show the intense lyricism and musicality that would mark all his verse. His marriage was shattered by his infatuation with Arthur Rimbaud, and the two scandalized Paris with their behaviour in 1872–73. While in prison in Belgium (1873–75) for shooting Rimbaud when the latter threatened to leave him, he converted to Catholicism and probably composed the famous “Art poétique,” adopted in 1882 by the poets of the Symbolist movement. Sagesse (1880) expresses his religious faith and his emotional odyssey. He later taught French and English; he spent his late years in poverty, but just before his death he was sponsored for a major international lecture tour. His Les Poètes maudits (1884; “The Accursed Poets”) consists of short biographical studies of six poets, including Stéphane Mallarmé and Rimbaud. He is regarded as the third great member (with Charles Baudelaire and Mallarmé) of the so-called Decadents.

The Poor Fisherman, oil on canvas by Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, 1881; in the Louvre, Paris.

Symbolism Summary

Symbolism, a loosely organized literary and artistic movement that originated with a group of French poets in the late 19th century, spread to painting and the theatre, and influenced the European and American literatures of the 20th century to varying degrees. Symbolist artists sought to express

autobiography Summary

Autobiography, the biography of oneself narrated by oneself. Autobiographical works can take many forms, from the intimate writings made during life that were not necessarily intended for publication (including letters, diaries, journals, memoirs, and reminiscences) to a formal book-length

poetry Summary

Poetry, literature that evokes a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience or a specific emotional response through language chosen and arranged for its meaning, sound, and rhythm. (Read Britannica’s biography of this author, Howard Nemerov.) Poetry is a vast subject, as old as history and

biography Summary

Biography, form of literature, commonly considered nonfictional, the subject of which is the life of an individual. One of the oldest forms of literary expression, it seeks to re-create in words the life of a human being—as understood from the historical or personal perspective of the author—by