Paul Verlaine

If all "art," as Walter Pater wrote, "constantly aspired towards the condition of music," Verlaine, impatiently rejecting the idea of a circuitous path to perfection, wanted his poetry to be music. Indeed, the great French poet opened his "Art poétique" with the laconic command: "De la musique avant toute chose" (Music before all else). In other words, Verlaine, unlike poets who wrote musical, or musically inspired, poetry, wrote poetry which possessed certain qualities, such as fluidity, ambivalence, tonal richness, euphony, melodiousness, precise imprecision, and otherworldl...