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A ''poète maudit'' (, "accursed poet") is a

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wr ...

living a life outside or against society. Abuse of drugs and alcohol, insanity, crime, violence, and in general any societal sin, often resulting in an early death, are typical elements of the biography of a ''poète maudit''.

History of the term

The phrase ''poète maudit'' was coined in the beginning of the 19th century by

Alfred de Vigny Alfred Victor, Comte de Vigny (27 March 1797 – 17 September 1863) was a French poet and early French Romanticist. He also produced novels, plays, and translations of Shakespeare. Biography Vigny was born in Loches (a town to which he never ...

in his 1832 novel ''Stello'', in which he calls the poet "" (the race that will always be cursed by the powerful ones of the earth).

Charles Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticism inherited ...

Paul Verlaine Paul-Marie Verlaine (; ; 30 March 1844 – 8 January 1896) was a French poet associated with the Symbolist movement and the Decadent movement. He is considered one of the greatest representatives of the ''fin de siècle'' in international and F ...

and

Arthur Rimbaud Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud (, ; 20 October 1854 – 10 November 1891) was a French poet known for his transgressive and surreal themes and for his influence on modern literature and arts, prefiguring surrealism. Born in Charleville, he sta ...

are considered typical examples. Lautréamont or Alice de Chambrier are also considered as ''poètes maudits'', as is the American 20th-century poet

Hart Crane Harold Hart Crane (July 21, 1899 – April 27, 1932) was an American poet. Provoked and inspired by T. S. Eliot, Crane wrote modernist poetry that was difficult, highly stylized, and ambitious in its scope. In his most ambitious work, ''The Bridge ...

. The term came into wider usage since Verlaine's anthology. Originally it was used just for the writers in his book (see below), but then it became a name for writers (or even artists in general) whose lives and art are outside or against their society. For example, the poet and publisher Pierre Seghers published an anthology '' Poètes maudits d'aujourd'hui: 1946–1970'' ("The accursed poets of today") in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

in 1972, collecting authors such as

Antonin Artaud Antoine Marie Joseph Paul Artaud, better known as Antonin Artaud (; 4 September 1896 – 4 March 1948), was a French writer, poet, dramatist, visual artist, essayist, actor and theatre director. He is widely recognized as a major figure of the E ...

, Jean-Pierre Duprey and 10 others, some of whom (like Artaud) became very famous posthumously. The term is also used outside France. Examples include American poet

Delmore Schwartz Delmore Schwartz (December 8, 1913 – July 11, 1966) was an American poet and short story writer. Early life Schwartz was born in 1913 in Brooklyn, New York, where he also grew up. His parents, Harry and Rose, both Romanian Jews, separated whe ...

, whom Mark Ford called "America's most genuine claimant to the title", Anglo-Canadian poet

Paul Potts Paul Potts (born 13 October 1970) is an English tenor. In 2007, he won the first series of ITV's ''Britain's Got Talent'' with his performance of "Nessun dorma", an aria from Puccini's opera ''Turandot''. As a singer of operatic pop music, Po ...

, Czech poet

Karel Hynek Mácha Karel Hynek Mácha () (16 November 1810 – 5 November 1836) was a Czech romantic poet. Biography Mácha grew up in Prague, the son of a foreman at a mill. He learned Latin and German in school. He went on to study law at Prague University; du ...

, the Polish poet

Rafał Wojaczek Rafał Wojaczek (December 6, 1945 – May 11, 1971) was a Polish poet of the postwar generation. He was a son of a respected family in Upper Silesia. His life was marked by abortive studies, alcoholism, depression and suicide attempts, the last ...

and the Italian poet Salvatore Toma; Wojaczek and Toma committed suicide at an early age.

''Les Poètes maudits''

''Les Poètes maudits'' is a work by

that was published in 1884. The work is a homage to

Tristan Corbière Tristan Corbière (18 July 1845 – 1 March 1875), born Édouard-Joachim Corbière, was a French poet born in Coat-Congar, Ploujean (now part of Morlaix) in Brittany, where he lived most of his life before dying of tuberculosis at the age of 2 ...

Stéphane Mallarmé Stéphane Mallarmé ( , ; 18 March 1842 – 9 September 1898), pen name of Étienne Mallarmé, was a French poet and critic. He was a major French symbolist poet, and his work anticipated and inspired several revolutionary artistic schools of t ...

, Marceline Desbordes-Valmore, Villiers de l'Isle-Adam and Pauvre Lélian (Paul Verlaine himself, the name being an

anagram An anagram is a word or phrase formed by rearranging the letters of a different word or phrase, typically using all the original letters exactly once. For example, the word ''anagram'' itself can be rearranged into ''nag a ram'', also the word ...

Gallery

File:Charles Baudelaire 1855 Nadar.jpg, Portrait of

Nadar Gaspard-Félix Tournachon (5 April 1820 – 20 March 1910), known by the pseudonym Nadar, was a French photographer, caricaturist, journalist, novelist, balloonist, and proponent of heavier-than-air flight. In 1858, he became the first perso ...

(1855) File:Frédéric Bazille - Paul Verlaine.jpg,

Frédéric Bazille Jean Frédéric Bazille (December 6, 1841 – November 28, 1870) was a French Impressionist painter. Many of Bazille's major works are examples of figure painting in which he placed the subject figure within a landscape painted ''en plein air''. ...

(1867) File:Lautreamont1.jpg,

Comte de Lautréamont Comte de Lautréamont () was the ''Pen name, nom de plume'' of Isidore Lucien Ducasse (4 April 1846 – 24 November 1870), a French language, French poet born in Uruguay. His only works, ''Les Chants de Maldoror'' and ''Poésies'', had a majo ...

by Jacques Lefrère
(before 1870) File:Carjat Arthur Rimbaud 1872 n2.jpg,

at the age of seventeen by

Étienne Carjat Étienne Carjat (28 March 1828 – 8 March 1906) was a French journalist, caricaturist and photographer. He co-founded the magazine ''Le Diogène'', and founded the review '' Le Boulevard''. He is best known for his numerous portraits and c ...

(c.1872)

References

External links

Verlaine's work in French (pdf)

Poètes maudits des littératures
{{DEFAULTSORT:Poete Maudit French poetry Poetry by Paul Verlaine