Passionate about literature, particularly the poet Baudelaire and Victor Hugo, Paul Verlaine began writing poems and short stories at a very young age. His poems quickly distinguished itself and departs from the canons of poetry of his time.
Verlaine, who was particularly fond of popular songs, opted for a sometimes dissonant poetry where the use of slang and prose is recurrent in his works.
He then joined the Parnassian movement, which promoted "art for art's sake".
His avant-garde work is accompanied by a provocative way of life, even in his social life. Indeed, He is known for his sulphurous love affairs and in particular his much criticized relationship (at the time) with Arthur Rimbaud, another great French poet of the 19th century.
When they met, Rimbaud was 17 years old, 10 years younger than Verlaine. Very quickly charmed by the young man's insolence, Verlaine begins a friendly relationship with him which gradually turns into a tumultuous love affair. Already married, he abandons his wife to follow his lover to England. After a few years of living together lulled by alcohol and frequent altercations, one fight too many marks the end of their relationship: Verlaine shoots Rimbaud twice and hits him on the wrist! The poet will be locked up in prison in Belgium for two years.
Alcoholic, sick, he died in Paris a few years later, leaving to French literature his famous Saturnian poems, a colection still studied today.
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Marie de Comme des Français
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