Paul Verlaine (1844.1896)
Signed autograph poem – Elegies X1
One page in-8° on Public Assistance paper.
Slnd (Paris. 1892).
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Well ! (We're not talking to you, ma'am),
After all, let's let the blade take us around.
She is sweet, she is strong, she smells like the sea,
His breath is salty with a bitter taste,
She is plump and nervous, she sings, she growls,
And it is a kind vehicle on the world,
Its transparency also forms a living mirror,
Reflecting the sky and its moving aspect.
The breeze caresses her and the kiss whips her.
Hope, regret or wish, the wing of the seagull
Flies around and, at night, gray, is pink during the day.
Like certainty or doubt in love…
Let us be taken by her (nothing, my dear,
Which concerns you) while it is still light
And clear and measured in a just ebb.
Let's not wait, great gods! that he will soon be no more
Time that, under the hurricane suffered, it does not burst
Furious and wicked and troubled under Hecate
Fateful and mocking in the twisted clouds:
Like a woman who frankly has all the wrongs,
Who rebels and becomes worse than nature,
Storm of anger and whirlwind of insult!
Ah! woe to the one caught in this awful pot
In the dark
(Hey, dear! How charming this afternoon!)
Paul Verlaine.
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In 1892, Verlaine began working on a new collection, Élégies , composed of a series of twelve poems in Alexandrines, recounting his epic love affair with Philomène Boudin.
The collection will be published by Léon Vanier in 1893.