SOURCE: “Introduction: Verlaine: Soulscapes of Quiet and Disquiet,” in Four French Symbolist Poets: Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Verlaine, Mallarmé, translated by Enid Rhodes Peschel, Ohio University Press, 1981, pp. 33–46.

In the following essay, Peschel presents an overview of Verlaine's life and career.

It's beautiful eyes behind veils, It's the full noon's trembling light, It's the blue jumble of bright Stars in a tepid autumn sky! 

Verlaine, “Art of Poetry”

Rimbaud used to say about Verlaine, “He's a charming child, violent and dangerous when he's drunk.”¹ These clashing qualities permeate Verlaine's troubled and tormented life and poetry. On the one hand, there is charm—gentle, attractive and captivating; and there are the innocent strengths and lovable weaknesses one associates with childhood—like purity, spontaneity, vulnerability and naïveté.² On the other hand, however, there are anger, passion and viciousness, and a depression so devastating that it seeks relief in drunkenness. The tale...