Paul Verlaine

Alan English (St. Patrick's College, Drumcondra)

Ed. by David Williams, University of Sheffield
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.5.2.05: French Writing and Culture: The Nineteenth-Century , 1800-1900.
Vol. editors: Edward Forman (University of Bristol), Nigel Harkness (University of Newcastle upon Tyne), Tim Unwin (University of Bristol), David Williams (University of Sheffield), Jennifer Yee (University of Oxford)

Dates

Born 30 Mar 1844
Died 8 Jan 1896
Activity 1864-1896

Places

Born in France
Active in France

Activities

Primary

Poet

Resources

Paul-Marie Verlaine was born in Metz, France on March 30, 1844, some thirteen years after the marriage of his parents Élisa and Nicolas-Auguste, an army officer. His early years (1844-1850) were marked by frequent upheaval as the family moved around France to the towns and cities where Nicolas was successively garrisoned. Partly owing to his father’s relative affluence and partly to his mother’s excessive attention and pampering of her only child, Verlaine enjoyed a rather privileged and carefree childhood. By the time he left school with his baccalauréat in 1862, Verlaine had already penned three poems: the distinctly Baudelairian Aspiration [Aspiration] and Fadaises [Twaddle], as well as what is believed to be his f…

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

2859 words

Citation: English, Alan. "Paul Verlaine". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 21 July 2004 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4536, accessed 21 November 2024.]

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here