Paul Verlaine
Paul Verlaine | |
---|---|
Symbolist | |
Spouse |
Mathilde Mauté
(m. 1870; div. 1885) |
Partner | Arthur Rimbaud (1871–1875) |
Signature | |
Paul-Marie Verlaine (
Biography
Early life
Born in
Marriage and military service
Mathilde Mauté became Verlaine's wife in 1870. At the proclamation of the Third Republic in the same year, Verlaine joined the 160th battalion of the Garde nationale, turning Communard on 18 March 1871.
Verlaine became head of the press bureau of the Central Committee of the
Relationships with Rimbaud and Létinois
Verlaine returned to Paris in August 1871, and, in September, received the first letter from
The poems collected in Romances sans paroles (1874) were written between 1872 and 1873, inspired by Verlaine's nostalgically coloured recollections of his life with Mathilde on the one hand and impressionistic sketches of his on-again off-again year-long escapade with Rimbaud on the other. Romances sans paroles was published while Verlaine was imprisoned. Following his release from prison, Verlaine again travelled to England, where he worked for some years as a teacher, teaching French, Latin, Greek and drawing at William Lovell's school in Stickney in Lincolnshire.[6] From there he went to teach in nearby Boston, before moving to Bournemouth.[7] While in England, he produced another successful collection, Sagesse. Verlaine returned to France in 1877 and, while teaching English at a school in Rethel, fell in love with one of his pupils, Lucien Létinois, who inspired Verlaine to write further poems.[8] Verlaine was devastated when Létinois died of typhus in 1883.
Final years
Verlaine's last years saw his descent into
Verlaine's poetry was admired and recognized as ground-breaking, and served as a source of inspiration to composers.
Verlaine's drug dependence and alcoholism took a toll on his life. He died in Paris at the age of 51 on 8 January 1896; he was buried in the
A bust monument to Verlaine sculpted by Rodo was erected in 1911. It sits in the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris.
Style
Much of the
In poetry, the symbolist procedure—as typified by Verlaine—was to use subtle suggestion instead of precise statement (
Verlaine described his typically decadent style in great detail in his poem "Art Poétique," describing the primacy of musicality and the importance of elusiveness and "the Odd." He spoke of veils and nuance and implored poets to "Keep away from the murderous Sharp Saying, Cruel Wit, and Impure Laugh." It is with these lyrical veils in mind that Verlaine concluded by suggesting that a poem should be a "happy occurrence."[12]
Portraits
Numerous artists painted Verlaine's portrait. Among the most illustrious were
-
by Frédéric Bazille
1867 -
by Eugène Carrière
1890 -
by Edmond Aman-Jean
1892 -
by Isaac Israëls
1892 -
by Edouard Chantalat
1898
Posthumous,
from a photograph.
Historical footnote
- In preparation for Operation Overlord, the BBC via Radio Londres had signaled to the French Resistance that the opening lines of the 1866 Verlaine poem "Chanson d'automne" were to indicate the start of D-Day operations. The first three lines of the poem, "Les sanglots longs / Des violons / De l'automne" ("Long sobs of autumn violins"), meant that Operation Overlord was to start within two weeks. These lines were broadcast on 1 June 1944. The next set of lines, "Blessent mon coeur / D'une langueur / Monotone" ("wound my heart with a monotonous languor"),[13] meant that it would start within 48 hours and that the resistance should begin sabotage operations especially on the French railroad system; these lines were broadcast on 5 June at 23:15.[14][15][16]
In popular culture
- Among the admirers of Verlaine's work was the muse, Olga Ivinskaya,
Whenever [Boris Leonidovich] was provided with literal versions of things which echoed his own thoughts or feelings, it made all the difference and he worked feverishly, turning them into masterpieces. I remember his translating Paul Verlaine in a burst of enthusiasm like this -- L'Art poétique was after all an expression of his own beliefs about poetry.[17]
- French composer Cecile Paul Simon (1881-1970) used Verlaine's text for her song "L’heure Exquise."[18]
- Russian composer Lyubov Streicher (1888-1958) set Verlaine's text to music in her Romances.[19]
- French composer Beatrice Siegrist (born 1934) used Verlaine's text for her songs "Melodies."[19]
- In 1943, Richard Hillary, author of The Last Enemy, quoted Verlaine (Sagesse) in his poem.[20]
- His relationship with Rimbaud was dramatised in the 1964 Australian TV play A Season in Hell.
- In 1964, French singer Léo Ferré set to music fourteen poems from Verlaine and some from Rimbaud for his album Verlaine et Rimbaud. He also sang two other poems (Colloque sentimental, Si tu ne mourus pas) in his album On n'est pas sérieux quand on a dix-sept ans (1987).[citation needed]
- Soviet/Russian composer David Tukhmanov set Verlaine's poem to music in Russian and French (cult album On a Wave of My Memory, 1975).[21]
- Guitarist, singer and songwriter Tom Miller (better known as Tom Verlaine, leader of the art rock band Television) chose his stage name as a tribute to Verlaine.
- New Zealand indie rock band The Verlaines are named after Verlaine. Their most popular song "Death and the Maiden" references his shooting of Rimbaud.
- The time Verlaine and Rimbaud spent together was the subject of the 1995 film Total Eclipse, directed by Agnieszka Holland and with a screenplay by Christopher Hampton, based on his play of the same name. Verlaine was portrayed by David Thewlis and Leonardo DiCaprio played Rimbaud.
- The poem Crime of Love was set to music for the album Feasting with Panthers, released in 2011 by Marc Almond and Michael Cashmore. It was adapted and translated by Jeremy Reed.
- Bob Dylan's iconic "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go," has the lyric, "Situations have ended sad; Relationships have all been bad; Mine've been like Verlaine's and Rimbaud".
- Singer Lydia Loveless included a song called 'Verlaine Shot Rimbaud' on her album Somewhere Else.
- The 1975 song "Part of the Band" includes the line "And I fell in love with a boy, it was kinda lame; I was Rimbaud and he was Paul Verlaine"[22]
- "Clair de lune" by Claude Debussy takes its title from Verlaine's poem of the same name which depicts the soul as somewhere full of music "in a minor key" where birds are inspired to sing by the "sad and beautiful" light of the moon.
Works in French (original)
Verlaine's Complete Works are available in critical editions from the Bibliothèque de la Pléiade.
- )
- Poèmes saturniens (1866)
- Les Amies (1867)
- "Clair de Lune" (1869)
- Fêtes galantes (1869)
- La Bonne Chanson (1870)
- Romances sans paroles (1874)
- Cellulairement (1875 completed, 2013 published)[24]
- Sagesse (1880)
- Voyage en France par un Français (1881)
- Les Poètes maudits(1884)
- Jadis et naguère (Verlaine) (1884)
- Les Mémoires d'un veuf (1886)
- Amour (1888)
- À Louis II de Bavière (1888)
- Parallèlement (1889)
- Dédicaces (1890)
- Femmes (1890)
- Hombres (1891)
- Bonheur (1891)
- Mes hôpitaux (1891)
- Chansons pour elle (1891)
- Liturgies intimes (1892)
- Mes prisons (1893)
- Élégies (1893)
- Odes en son honneur (1893)
- Dans les limbes (1894)
- Épigrammes (1894)
- Confessions (1895)
Works in English (translation)
Although widely regarded as a major French poet—to the effect that towards the end of his life he was sobriquetted as "Le Prince des Poètes" (The Prince of Poets) in the French-speaking world—surprisingly very few of Verlaine's major works have been translated in their entirety (vs. selections therefrom) into English. Here is a list to help track those known to exist.
French Title (Original) | English Title | Genre | Publisher, &c. |
---|---|---|---|
La Bonne Chanson | The Good Song | Poetry | Sunny Lou Publishing, 2022. Translated by Richard Robinson. ISBN 978-1-95539-228-0
|
Chansons pour elle | Songs for Her & Odes in Her Honor | Poetry | Sunny Lou Publishing, 2021. Translated by Richard Robinson. ISBN 978-1-73547-767-1
|
Fêtes galantes | Fêtes Galantes & Songs Without Words | Poetry | Sunny Lou Publishing, 2022. Translated by Richard Robinson. ISBN 978-1-95539-220-4
|
Odes en son honneur | Songs for Her & Odes in Her Honor | Poetry | Sunny Lou Publishing, 2021. Translated by Richard Robinson. ISBN 978-1-73547-767-1
|
Poèmes saturniens | Poems Under Saturn | Poetry | Princeton University Press, 2011. Translated by Karl Kirchwey. ISBN 978-0-69114-486-3
|
Romances sans paroles | Songs Without Words | Poetry | Omnidawn, 2013. Translated by Donald Revell. ISBN 978-1-89065-087-2
|
Mes hôpitaux | My Hospitals & My Prisons | Autobiography | Sunny Lou Publishing, 2020. Translated by Richard Robinson. ISBN 978-1-73547-760-2
|
Mes prisons | My Hospitals & My Prisons | Autobiography | Sunny Lou Publishing, 2020. Translated by Richard Robinson. ISBN 978-1-73547-760-2
|
Cellulairement | Cellulely | Poetry | Sunny Lou Publishing, 2020. Translated by Richard Robinson. ISBN 978-1-73547-764-0
|
Femmes/Hombres | Women/Men | Poetry | Anvil Press Poetry Ltd, 1979. Translated by Alistair Elliot. ISBN 978-0856460449
|
Voyage en France par un Français | Voyage in France by a Frenchman | Poetry | Sunny Lou Publishing, 2021. Translated by Richard Robinson. ISBN 978-1-95539-215-0
|
See also
References
- ^ "Verlaine". Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.
- ^ Shapiro, Norman R., One Hundred and One Poems by Paul Verlaine, University of Chicago Press, 1999
- ^ a b "Paul Verlaine". Litweb.net. Archived from the original on 7 August 2007. Retrieved 18 July 2007.
- ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved 31 March 2020.
- OCLC 502187924.
- ^ Delahave, Ernst (2006). "Paul Verlaine" (PDF). Martin and Bev Gosling. Retrieved 5 September 2010.[permanent dead link]
- ^ Delahave, Ernst (22 May 2010). "Biography of Paul Verlaine". The Left Anchor. Archived from the original on 12 May 2013. Retrieved 5 September 2010.
- ^ "Lucien Létinois | French author". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 31 March 2020.
- ISBN 0-903873-40-0.
- ^ Rolf, Marie. Page 7 of liner notes to Forgotten Songs by Claude Debussy, with Dawn Upshaw and James Levine, Sony SK 67190.
- ^ Wilson, Scott. Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons, 3d ed.: 2 (Kindle Locations 48689-48690). McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. Kindle Edition.
- ^ Verlane, Paul (1882). "Art Poétique". Aesthetic Realism Online Library. Translated by Eli Siegel (1968). Retrieved 18 February 2017.
- ISBN 0-415-22405-5. Retrieved 20 July 2013.
The French Resistance ... was given 24 hours' warning of the invasion by a BBC radio broadcast. A single line from the poem "Chanson d'automne" by Paul Verlaine, "blessent mon coeur D'une langueur monotone" (wound my heart with a monotonous languor) was the order for action.
- ISBN 978-0-8118-3050-8.
- ]
- ISBN 978-0-06-122859-9.
- ^ Olga Ivinskaya, A Captive of Time: My Years with Boris Pasternak, (1978). Page 34.
- ^ "C.-P. Simon Song Texts | LiederNet". www.lieder.net. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-9617485-1-7.
- ^ Hillary, Richard (2005). The Last Enemy. Project Gutenberg.
- ^ "Давид Тухманов". popsa.info.
- ^ Kaufman, Gil (6 July 2022). "The 1975 Invite You To Be 'Part of the Band' On Upcoming Single". Billboard. Retrieved 17 January 2023.
- ^ Delage R. Emmanuel Chabrier. Paris, Fayard, 1999, p692-3.
- .
Further reading
- Hanson, Lawrence & Elisabeth. Verlaine: Prince of Poets (Chatto & Windus, 1958)
- Lehmann, John. Three Literary Friendships (Quartet, 1983)
- Mackworth, Cecily. English Interludes: Mallarme, Verlaine, Paul Valery, Valery Larbaud, 1860-1912 (Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1974)
- Richardson, Joanna. Verlaine (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1971)
- Troyat, Henri. Verlaine (Flammarion, 1993)
External links
- Works by Paul Verlaine at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Paul Verlaine at Internet Archive
- Works by Paul Verlaine at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- Free scores of works by Paul Verlaine in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
- (in French) Works by Paul Verlaine at Webnet
- (in French) Works by Paul Verlaine in PDF at Livres et Ebooks
- (in English) Resignation and Other Poems at New Translations
- Four poems by Verlaine, translated by Norman R. Shapiro, with original French texts
- Article on Paul Verlaine and the French Symbolists in March 1895 edition of The Bookman (New York)