biography
| name: |
Verlaine, Paul (Marie)
|
pronunciation:
[verlen]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1844–96)
|
| biography:
| Poet, born in Metz, NE France. Educated in Paris, he joined the civil service, but mixed with the leading Parnassian writers, and achieved success with his second book of poetry, Fêtes galantes (1869). In 1872 he left his family to travel with the young poet Rimbaud, but their friendship ended in Brussels (1873) when Verlaine, drunk and desolate at Rimbaud's intention to leave, shot him in the wrist. While in prison for two years, he wrote Romances sans paroles (1874, Songs Without Words). He became a Catholic, then taught French in England, where he wrote Sagesse (1881, Wisdom), which contains perhaps his finest lyrics. In 1877 he returned to France, where he wrote critical studies, notably Les Poètes maudits (1884, The Accursed Poets), short stories, and sacred and profane verse. |
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