Les poètes maudits
Related: poetry - damned - Symbolist literature - 1884 - Decadent movement - Arthur Rimbaud - Paul Verlaine - Charles Baudelaire
Paul Verlaine in a café
Description
A poète maudit (French: accursed or damned poet) is a poet 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.
The first poète maudit, and its prototype, was François Villon (1431-c. 1474) but the phrase wasn't coined until the end of the 19th century, with Charles Baudelaire, Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud considered typical examples.
Les poètes maudits is also a work by Paul Verlaine that was published in 1884. It is a hommage to Tristan Corbière, Arthur Rimbaud, Stéphane Mallarmé, Marceline Desbordes-Valmore, Villiers de l'Isle-Adam and Pauvre Lelian (Paul Verlaine).
See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Po%C3%A8te_maudit [Mar 2006]
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