French Literature Reviews - 2026

Verlaine: Poet of the Indecidable
Poetry and Poetics

Alan English

Verlaine: Poet of the Indecidable
A Study of Verlaine's Versification

Amsterdam/New York, NY 2005. XI, 345 pp. (Faux Titre 261)

ISBN : 90-420-1944-1 70,-/US $ 98.-

Online info : http://www.rodopi.nl/senj.asp?BookId=FAUX+261

Even today, Paul Verlaine remains one of the most widely read poets in French literature; yet, his work has long been misunderstood or overshadowed by that of contemporaries such as Rimbaud and Mallarmé.

Like the man himself, the poet is a complex, "two-faced" figure who delights in the in-between and in ambiguity. Verlaine’s genius lies not in having challenged the conventions and laws of 19th-century lyrical poetry, but in having accomplished this feat with the utmost simplicity, almost nonchalantly. This study reveals that the well-known thematic inclinations of Verlaine's oeuvre (grisailles, vagueness, unresolved sexuality, perpetual questioning) extend equally to the formal and prosodic levels. Furthermore, we see how the questions raised by Verlaine's handling of French verse intersect with the tenets of French symbolist aesthetics, frequently marking the starting point for theoretical inquiries in late 20th-century literary criticism.

Hence the emphasis placed in this book on Derrida's concept of "indecidability," which is closely linked to the deconstruction of binary oppositions and the principle of non-contradiction. While offering a fresh and innovative perspective on Verlaine’s work, this approach helps explain, at least in part, why a significant portion of the poet's output was overlooked or ignored by critics and readers for decades. This new perspective thus serves as a necessary starting point for rediscovering and truly understanding the work of one of the 19th-century "cursed poets" (poètes maudits).

Paul Verlaine occupies a prominent position in French literature, though his work has sometimes been overshadowed by contemporaries such as Arthur Rimbaud and Stéphane Mallarmé. Within the broader context of nineteenth-century French literature, studies of versification frequently examine how poets negotiated strict metrical rules while developing new avenues for expression. Readers interested in nineteenth-century verse and symbolist poetics may find this detailed prosodic analysis relevant to their broader literary inquiries.

The page notes that Verlaine is a complex figure who delights in ambiguity and the in-between, with thematic inclinations that extend to the formal and prosodic levels. The study applies Jacques Derrida's concept of indecidability to the poet's handling of French verse, intersecting with the tenets of French symbolist aesthetics. This approach relates to how a significant portion of the poet's output was overlooked or ignored by critics and readers for decades.