Paul Verlaine

Description

Paul Verlaine was born in Metz on March 30, 1844. He died in Paris on January 8, 1895, after having, in the last years of his life, wandered from one hospital to another, prey to the miseries of alcohol. The Academy, during his lifetime, had denied him an immortality that this cursed poet soon conquered, once he had disappeared. Paul Verlaine left us some of the most famous poems of French literature: Colloque sentimental, Il pleure dans mon coeur, Chanson d'automne, Le ciel est par-dessus le toit. They testify to an immeasurable sensitivity that, until him, one did not think language could express. Here, everything is just a sweet rustling of vowels, rhythms barely perceptible, the sorrow of a single sigh summarized. All eloquence and all literature have indeed disappeared from these verses as their author wished. But Verlaine is not just a musician of words. He knows how to tell us small intimate events, arising from memory (Never more), or describe an impossible love in its demands (Mon rêve familier). Verlaine, the cursed poet, was also a great writer. He occupies an essential place in universal literature! He is here magnified by the unforgettable voices of François Périer, Jean-Marc Tennberg, Jean Vilar, Madeleine Renaud, Suzy Solidor, Claude Darvy, and Jean Chevrier.