Short biography: Paul Verlaine

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

At the end of the 19th century, France had many talented poets, each of whom had a wonderful and interesting biography. Paul Verlaine was one such outstanding lyricist. No wonder he was proclaimed the "prince of poets" and a recognized master of the symbolic direction. However, he was neither a theorist nor a leader.

Creativity and the facts of the poet's personal life are inextricably linked. Being an unbalanced and passionate nature (so his biography tells us), Paul Verlaine was constantly entangled in the contradictions of his character and fate, and also caved in under the yoke of difficult life circumstances. But, as A. France rightly said: “It is unacceptable to apply the same measure to a poet and to sane people. Paul has rights that we do not have, since he is incomparably higher and at the same time incomparably lower than all of us. He is an unconscious being and the kind of poet who is born once in a century.”

Childhood and youth

Paul Verlaine was born in Metz in 1844. Because of the work of his father (he was a military engineer), the whole family constantly moved until he settled in Paris in 1851. Here is the futurethe poet spent his school years. In 1862 he received a bachelor's degree in literature. Already in his youth, Paul developed a passion for literary creativity. He constantly read the poems of C. Baudelaire, as well as the Parnassian poets T. Gauthier and T. de Bonville. At the end of 1862, the future poet entered the faculty of law to study law, but material difficulties forced him to quit his studies and start working.

First publications

In 1866, Paul is published in the journal Modern Parnassus. He also publishes the collection Saturn Poems with his own money. In the first book of Verlaine, the influence on the author of the Parnassian poets is traced, who abandoned the "confessional lyrics" and the romantic "seething of feelings". In their opinion, the main criterion of beauty is the perfection of form, "harmony between the subjective and the objective." The early poems of Paul Verlaine reflect this principle very clearly. Nevertheless, the poet has his own original style, which is characterized by melancholy intonations and the ability to convey to the reader the secret movements of the soul, its “music”.

New works

In the late 60s, Paul collaborated with several literary magazines. Also at his own expense, he publishes in 1869 the collection "Exquisite Holidays". The poems were characterized by a melancholy-playful form, allowing for colloquial intonation. The poet tries rhymes impossible in traditional versification.

At this time, Verlaine meets a 16-year-old girl, Matilda. A flared love passion inspires Paul to writenew collection "Good Song". The poems included in the book have a common rhythm. The poet's words are tender and lyrical.

Wedding and meeting with Rimbaud

In the summer of 1870, the Good Song collection was published, and Verlaine immediately married Mathilde. The young settle in Paris, but the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war forces them to survive the siege of the city. After 1871 Paul's melancholy intensified. This is facilitated by both an undeveloped personal life and the loss of the Paris Commune.

Family relations became even more complicated after Paul met another French poet. It was the famous Arthur Rimbaud. Anarchism and complete nihilism - these are the two worldview positions that characterize Arthur's work and his biography. Paul Verlaine, pushed by a young genius, decides to break with the poetic tradition. He seriously thinks about the content of his poems.

From the beginning of 1872, Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud spend all their time together. They travel extensively in England and Belgium. Rimbaud believes that Paul needs to look for new ways of poetic creativity. They often quarrel and make up, until a climactic scandal occurs in mid-1873. Paul shoots Arthur and wounds him in the shoulder. For this, Verlaine is imprisoned for two years. He will be released in January 1875.

Romances without words

All Paul Verlaine's poems are good, but those included in the collection "Romances without words" are his best poetic achievement. The collection was published in 1874, when the author was in prison. In versenotes of melancholy, sadness and short oblivion sound. Some works are reminiscent of Impressionist landscapes, covered with a gray haze or dissolved in fog. At the same time, the use of the pictorial possibilities of the language and the tendency towards the synthesis of pictorial and verbal images are clearly traced.

"Poetic Art" and "Cursed Poets"

In 1882, Paul publishes the poem "Poetic Art", which became a real manifesto for young symbolist poets. Although Paul himself did not advise the followers of his work to engage in imitation. It is better to create your own original style. In the same year, the cycle “Damned Poets” appeared, where the author spoke about the latest school of symbolist poets and praised T. Korber, A. Rimbaud, S. Mallarme and others. The success of this cycle allowed Paul to publish more of his own works and get good ones for them. money. We can say that financially it was the best time in the life of the poet. This ends his biography. Paul Verlaine died in 1896 of pneumonia.