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Paul-Marie Verlaine was born March 30, 1844 in the town of Metz on the
Eastern border of France. His father, a French army officer, brought the
family to Paris when Paul-Marie was seven years old.
As a young man, Verlaine made several attempts at a normal life, studying
law for a couple of years, working as an insurance clerk. He married a
young woman named Mathilde in 1870, and they had a son, Georges. He
socialized in "bohemian" crowds as well as at more upper-class salons. He
became fascinated with the poetry of Baudelaire, and worked with a
publisher to arrange the publication of his own first volume, "Poemes
Saturniens," in 1866.
Verlaine's sardonic, wistful early work had much in common with the
impressionist art that was being invented elsewhere in Paris at the same
time. His poems were neat, sparse miniatures of life's moments: first
kisses, seashells, mimes on the street.
But Verlaine was uniquely open to the influences of his surroundings, and
would soon evolve his style, and his life, through several phases. When
Paris fell into revolutionary havoc in 1870, Paul Verlaine cast his lot with
the Commune, and worked as a censor with the radical improvised
government that held the city for only a brief time.
His next phase was completely apolitical. He received a letter from an
unknown teenage poet named Rimbaud in 1871. Verlaine recognized
Rimbaud's poetic talent and despite the fact that he was apparently
heterosexual (or at least had been up to this time) fell madly in love with
him. The two poets travelled together for a short time, and Verlaine helped
Rimbaud become a literary celebrity in Paris. But when it became clear that
Rimbaud was going to move on and leave Verlaine behind, the older poet
could not stand the loss. A series of bitter fights ensued, and Verlaine
ended up firing a gun at Rimbaud, injuring his wrist. Rimbaud pressed
charges, sending Verlaine to prison for two years, before fleeing the world
of literary fame in disgust.
After two years in jail Verlaine went through a Catholic phase,
experimented with farming, and in 1881 published a book of mature,
spiritually conservative book of poetry, "Sagesse" ("Wisdom"), that sold
better than any of his previous books and greatly increased his literary
reputation.
But he would return to darker themes. He spent his later years drinking
absinthe in Paris cafes and behaving bizarrely in front of admiring crowds.
In 1894, two years before his death, he published a volume entitled "The
Posthumous Book". His poetry became increasingly self-referential, and
the cliched image of the absinthe-soaked celebrity poet became the central
theme of his work. He died on January 8, 1896 at the home of a
prostitute.
Sample poem:
GREEN
Voici des fruits, des fleurs, des feuilles et des branches
Et puis voici mon coeur, qui ne bat que pour vous,
Ne le dchirez pas avec vos deux mains blanches,
Et qu' vos yeux si beaux l'humble prsent soit doux.
J'arrive tout couvert encore de rose
Que le vent du matin vient glacer mon front.
Souffrez que ma fatique, vos pieds repose,
Rve des chers instants qui la dlasseront.
Sur votre jeune sein laissez rouler ma tte
Toute sonore encor de vos derniers baisers;
Laissez-la s'apaiser de la bonne tempte,
Et qure je dorme un peu puisque vous reposez.
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