U F O R G U E - HIS LIFE, LITJCRARY AND ARTISTIC

BACKGROUNDS AND POETRY

HIS (Laforgue's) ~ntelligence was very lively, but closcly llnked to b s sensiblhty AU on@ intelligences are so composed-they are the expansion,

the flowcnng of a psychology But In the process of h ~ u l g , one a c q u e s the facult). of dissoc~atmg intell~gence 6.om sensibility '

Laforhwe 1s one of the comparahvely hnle-knowm French poets of

the late nlneteenth centuq Dmng h ~ s l~fe hme and for a long tlme after

h ~ s dcath he suffered neglect In h ~ s own countrj The famous twenheth

ccntur). French literary anthologsts like Lagarde and ~ i c h a r d ' dismss

him ~ 7 t h merely a poem from h ~ s poetlcal works. The cnhcs' remarks of

h ~ s poems are not favourable either Some &snuss hun as a rmnor

s)ntbol~n, some others as a decadent, a few others as a cynical poet and

the rest just mention h~rn m a few lines as n o h g more than a literary link

m the late nlneteenth centuq French poem

The French have thew owm justifiable reasons for such a neglect. For

one h o g , the Influence of the French Symbol~st poets like Rimbaud,

--

' Remy de Gourmont, " The sensibll~ty of Jules Laforgue" in Selected Wnnncs, trans and cd Glcnn S Burne (Ann Arbor: Umvrrs~ty of hlichigan Press, 1966). p. 199

'~ndre Lagarde and Laurant M~chard ~nclude one poem by Laforgue in Vol V Textes et Linerature, XIX sikle, (Bordas: Paris, 1970). pp. 541- 543.

Verlaine and Mallarme was so strong that Laforgue's achievement

received no recognition. Such a neglect is not uncommon in the history of

English poetry too. Donne could not win immediate recognition m b

own time and had to wait for a couple of centuries for the semiDai essays

by H.J.C. Gri- and T.S Ellot to grve him a new lease of poetic

reputat~oo at the dawn of this century. Agam, Hopkins was practically

unknown fill Robert Bridges brought out a collecfion of poems and helped

him gain the deserved recogmfion.

Consequent on Eliot's nrpression of indebtedness to Laforgue, other

Amencan poets like Ezra Pound, Wallace Stevens and Stephen Crane

follow4 sult Their indebtedness m e d m degrees but not in kind.

Ncvmtheless, Morgue does not enjoy the reputahon that he deserves in

h ~ s own country even today Houston ria* observes :

Jdes Laforgue presents an mterestmg case of national understanding and dona1 m~sunderstandm~'

Morgue may not be as geal as Dante or Shakespeare or even

Baudelairc. But he IS great in h s own way His greatnffs lies not in

offering an integrated system of the world as in Dante nor m g an

inkling of thc e t d verit~es of We as m Shakespeare . But as a poet he is

force to rcckon wth. His poetry can be approached h m the point of view

of h ~ s early miserable life, or the kind of cynical philosophy he was

' John Porter Houston, "Jules Laforgw", Dictionarv of World Litmatus. ed. Joseph Shrpley, (New York PhilosoptUcal LI*. 1953).

p. 1883.

exposed to, or through his progrcss from poetry as an cxprcssion of

expcncncc to poctry as art His oeu\.rc md~catcs a clcar lme of

progression from a cynical and pesslmstic poetry towards a mature,

ongtnal and lnnovatlve poetry &cr the modermshc mode

Julcs Laforgue was born at Montewdeo on August 16, 1860 of a

Bnton mother and a Gascon father HIS parents came with their cMdren

to France m 1866 But w ~ h n a few weeks they went back to Tarbes

Icawmg thclr son Julcs Laforgue and daughter Ernie m France. They drd

not rcturn hi] 1875 Mcanwhllc, Jules Laforgue pursued IS s d e s at the

LycCc Thcoph~lc Gauher. He lrved alone wthout the parental affecnon

whch hc nccdcd most at ttus tune Bemg an average student m h s d e s

he farlcd thncc In Baccalaurca! Consequently, be stopped his studies and

spcnt much of his hme m thc l~braxy of S m t e Geneweve s m g the

phllosoph? of Schopenhaucr and Hartmanu and poets like Baudelm. He

first madc h ~ s dcbut as a reporter m two lrttle reviews &om Toulow : La and L'Enfcr and wrote poems. By 1880, Laforgue frequented the

meehng of the Cercle des ~ v d r o ~ a t h e s ~ ID Lahn quarter.

This turn of mmd made h ~ m wnte a senes of ph~Iosophcal poems m

h s first volume Le Sandot dc la Tern: He put back ~ t s publication on the

adwcc of Gustave Khan, then he wrote a novel Le Rate - a lustor?; of an

Laforgue frequented the meeMg of "Hydropathes" m h m quarter, where a group of young poets, writers, musicians, etc ... were gathercd by Gustave Khan, Charles Henry and Paul Bourgek all renowned men of letten who were Laforgue's supporters. In fact the name of Laforgue appeared for the first time m a Pansmn xwew The Modern Llfe edited by Charpentier and a prose text "Les Fianc6e.s de Nod" by Laforgue in 1 880.

etenlal flop. HIS feehg of loneliness intensified when 111s sister too left

Ilm to jolr~ her father who was seriously ill at Tarbcs Tllc poet moved out

to a si~lall rooin wluch he took on hue and coiltr~buted to famous re\ lews

like La Vie Moderne and L'Art et la Mode . Both the reviews paid

l~ttle to meet lus acute fumclal comrmtment. It was a! tlus tune that Paul

Bourgct nxoin~ncnded hs name as a readcr to the Empress Augusta His

work was to read to her excerpts from journals, novels, follow~ng her in

her nun~crous residences It so happencd that Morgue made new fnends

- t l~c Vio11111st Eugene lsayc and tus planlst brother who never left hun

HIS last five years were a blessing m d~sgu~se for the poet because be had

no more financial problelns which partly rendered h m mserable. He got

the rcqulrcd support from his hen& as well as ffom the pubhhers At

th~s tlme he was fortunate to come upon the learned Teodore de W>zevia

and f'.douard Dujardln Besides. 111s own bend became the du-cctor of a

Iltcrar) rcvlcw La Vocue Dunllg tlus penod Morgue contemplated on

art and 11fc and wrotc poetn noted for t e c h c a l innovations in a mount of

Slna atlnospherc

It 1s qutc notewortl~, that Laforgue had marned Leah m London m

1887 lit the same church wherc Eliot rnamed Valery L a f o p e hed ou

August 20, 1887 at the age of 27 - a ver). short penod of actlve hterary

life wlucl~ provcd to be comparatlvcly prolific, unpressive and h f l y

ulrlovatlve

laforgue's Philosophical Background

Morgue's exposure to the philosophy of his time very much

influenced aud c o l o d h s views of and attitude to life and consequently

his poetry HIS intcrcst In philosophy was emdent as early as 1880 when

hc was dashing off verses In French known as Vers Phlo mearung

phllosoph~cal vcrsc

(a) Taint

The first philosopher to whom he was exposed was the celebrated

author of French Philosouhers and of Intellirrence, Tame, whose lecture on

Aesthet~cs changed Laforgue's mews on art and life cons~derably

According to Tame there was hardly any rhfference between man and

anlmal To him all knowledge comes out of sensanon and whatever we

get as we grow we acquire through ow senses Laforgue's ~deas became

diamemcall~ opposlte to those of Tame After hls meebng ~ 7 t h Tmne he

dissociates moral from art He says of Tame

Tout cela est dans un monde trop etmlt, c'est I'antiqu~te classique et L'Ewope classlquc. Tout I'Onent e n lrusse de cote (11 n'est, il est b r a . pas auss~ connu, aussl commode que le mondc classlque Nu1 compte non plus des p r d ~ c u s e s dcbauches de la evcne moderne. elix~r demier de ce s~ccle eplque qu'lgnorent M Tame ct tous nos savants et honores et honorables pmfesseurs d'une honnite sensibllite'

Quoted In Laforme Cholx des &es Hamlet ed Mlchel Danscl (Nouvcaux Classlques Laroussc . Pans, 1966), p 18. "All that is in a marvellous world. It is classical anbquity and classical Europe. The whole of Orient IS (it is not, it is true, as well-known and as convenient as the classical world) set aside. None counts any more on the prodigeous debauchery of modern revery, the last elex~r of this epic century which ignore Mr. Tame and all our scholars and honoured and honourable professors wth an honest sensibility."

(b) Spioozn

Another phllosophn he read early In h ~ s Ilfe w a Spinoza whose

philosophical d o ~ w n e rangei hum kno~lcdge and God to human nature.

Spinoza is known for h ~ s religious rationalism. In h ~ s he takes the

Cartes~an method to the extent of pwng it a geometrically nprous form.

The system of Spinoza is essent~ally a pantheistic doctrine in which God

1s a substance consututed of a number of attributes of w k h we h o w

only two - Thought and Extenbon

Au irrlporknt phdosopher whoin Laforgue read wth Interest and

whosc ideas he made extensive use of m his early poems lnchded m &

S a ~ r l o t de la Terre and Les Co~mlau~tes was the nineteenth century

G c m u i ph~losopher Schopenhauer tfis concept of the world ~s based on

profound pcsslrrusm though 11 happens to be the most cohereut. According

to him love is a trap of Nature to make us Bve b d to new b e m g for

new sufT~nnys And wlwn we do not sutfcr, then begus ennu from whch

men try to gel out c l a n g society AU pleasures of life are negative and

consist in suspendmg sufkmg & from architecture to muslc, is an

expressloll of willingness to Ide ppasslg through sculpture, pu-g,

poew and theatre Man, according to hm, lives in suffering, in absurdity

and illusion.

Laforgue's poem "Complamte des pianos qu'o11 entend dans les

quahers d s " (The Lament of the Pianos You Hear in Rich

Neighbourhoods), analyscs the problems of Ute upper middle-class life.

'The prolagorlist sunri~scs 111 cvldcnt arrgcr about thc guls imagning men

as Iicrocs like Kolarid But lie says

Allez.. sltnles ntoumelles, I .a vie est vrate et cri~n~nelle '

T h ~ s 1s ev~dently an Instance of Schopenhauer's philosophy The

protagonist knows that Life Force or W~ll whlch forces us into cravings IS

csscntially ev~l Then he glves up this ph~losophy and resigns himself to

111s pl~gt~t

Anotllcr llilportaiit pliilosoplicr who ~~~f lucr~ccd Laforguc In a b ~ g

way was tlic i~~nclcc~itl~-ccr~lur?: Gcnnai, liduard von tiartmiinn, whose

~ ~ ~ _ ~ l ~ ~ l ~ s ~ ~ p l t i ~ dq I ~ % I C C ) I ~ S C I C I I ~ ( I hc I'l~ilosoul~v of thc Uriconscious)

\rh~cli L.afbrguc rcad In tlic trar~slatlon of D Nolcli publ~shcd UI 1877 was

h ~ s b~blc '1 111s pl~ilosophy nladc sucl~ an ln~pact on hun tllat its Ideas have

bccri wovcli. as 11 wcrc, Into the very texture of h s poems In !&

&ni~lau~tcs and prose works l ~ k c Salo~ui. arid Moral~tes Lcrrcnbres To

L.aforguc, the Unconscious sccnls to be the source or e v e r y h g art,

character, ~norals. wit and the Idea of God Laforguc's deal ~s

sylioliymous w~th Ilartmar~n's Llnconsc~ous It reconciles all the conbanes

of Iltlr~ian lil'c. runtillig at tlic dc~pcst lcvcl or the human ~iiind If tllc

conscrous IS rcgardcd as the d i m e csscnce, d~en the conscious aus and

p e e s of the satisfied Sunday procession will bccornc an even geater

shame

' 0.C. VoI. 1 p.81. "You barren refrains' Life 1s real and crim~nal". (trans., Michael Collie,

P. 56)

'l'lm Unconscious 1s connected w ~ t h the possibility of expressing it.

Laforguc ltirrtsclf suggcsld tltat the articulatton of the Uttcortscious 1s

posstblc

Cllaquc Iioi~i~rtc cat ur~ ccriaiil ctavlcr sur lcqucl le tnonde exterteure joue d'une certatne faqon Mon clavter cst pcrpdtuellement char~geant et 11 n'y a en pas un autre ldenttque au mien Tous les clav~ers sont leg~t~mes '

Accordirtg to Laforguc, ltutrtan beings are fixed illto a certan tlnle

rtltd slsacc Wttlnn t l icx constrattils, Itowcver, there IS freedont We are

just ltkc tttc keyboards upvn which the world plays In the same way

cvcry arllst is ctldowcd witl~ ul~lcluc sci~s~bilrly i r ~ so lilr as tic cxprcsscs

h ~ s tiltrage of tltc personal world Of course the greater the senstbtl~ty of

tltc Mist tllc titore cxtraotdtnarj tltc world kcotrtes But, 011 the other

Itaid, In practical ltfc the lJnconsctous leads Laforguc to a lond of

thtalisn~ I t 1s a rcsipicd acceptance of tlie eartli and of the niai In a

sct~sc. Itis pcsbiiitisin 1s les.wt~ed and tlicrc comes a k ~ n d of optlrmsln.

I. 'llomn~e n'est qu'un Insecte sous les cleux. tr~ais qu'tl se rcspcxtc ct 11 cst btcr~ Dleu Un spasine de la creature vaut toute le natures

. . . . - . . - .. .. . - --

' M P , ~ > I ~ I "lach litan 1s a certain clavler on whom the extenor world plays tn a

ccrtaul faslttott My clavtcr IS pcrpctually chyig~ng and there is no other identical to mine All clav~ers are legibtnate. (trans., Michael Collie, Larorauc p 32)

M.L., p.238. "Man is but an Insect under the skies; but that he respects himself and he 1s a good God. A spasm of the creature is worth the whole of nature."

Thcrc arc traces of tiartmnann's philosophy nl hs poetry, chlefly, ul his

corlccptiori of thc galnc of love a~ld chance:

Elle m'ame, in1initnent' Non d'occas~oii~ "SI nor1 m, ce serat rnfin~ment un autrel"'

or In treating the indlv~dual being as no more than a colony of cells:

"Oycr.. au physrque commc au moral, Ne suis qu'une colorlle de cellulcs""'

Another poii~t In ttminann's &scussion on sexuality had a pervasive

~nflucnce oil Iaforgue's poetry According to tlanmann, sexual impulses

arc shamclirl yet lr~evrtable t r o t ~ c pleasure 1s no greater than any other.

I>cspitc repcatcd d~sappol~ltn~eilts it is the ldca and WrI1 that impel one

Into coitus Of thc two lovers, the one usually loves more than the other

~vl~rcll ultimately leads to mislortune .['he sexes are d~Kerent from each

othcr and exert thclr attraction Accordirlg to tiarimann, 11 1s intelligence

~ h i c l l can replace the allurements Thrs helped Laforpue In portraying

maladjustmcnts III the relat~on between the sexes Laforgue's "Complante

du ROI 'l'hule" IS a case 111 point King Thult! ~llustrates aspects of

flartnlaln's thou~l t s on sexuality and the Unconsc~ous The poem

prescnts a klng of 'l'hult! who IS imniaculate, not ~r~volved In sex He

abhors 1,lCc Force or Wrll represented by sex The poem makes frequent

rcfcrc~~ccs to catllolic traditiol~ - - - . . - . -- - -

' c . p 3 0 "She loves me, lnfinitelyt No occaslon If 1101 11le. it would bc lllfirl~tcly another"

"'0 C., Vol 11.. p 41 "flear you, hear you I am nothing physically or morally but a colony of cclls hiu~gulg together by flukc" (trans. Mlcllael Collie, Laforauc), p.8 1.

Though the ideas of the pc-ssunist philosophers are scattered in the

corpus of Laforgue's works, wlrat strikcs one on r c d n g Lhcm is the

gradual shin from Scliopcnhauer to Hartmann, from Lc Sandot de la

'ferry - to h s Co~~iyla~l~tcg, fro111 pcssi~r~~slri to tlie UIIWIIXI~US. Laforguc,

unlike his rnast~r Scbopcrthraucr, became practical and held the view (hat

optunlsni sl~ould not bc treated as a separate entity but should be

reconciled in tlic dcvotlon to I~fc.

(a) Rdmm

In tlie latter lialf of Ulc r~~~iclccr~th cc~itury there werc two ~m

ri~ovc~ncnts 111 Ewopczui l~tcraturc Kcal~sm and Sy~nbolism. R d s t

wrltcrs Itkc I : I I I I ~ ~ ik la wliosc works I 'kwlr i~~iolr (1877) aid Gcnnrllal

( 1885) bwiunc popular werc followed by ~ U L T wntcrs like M a u p a s a t

whose novels arid sliort sloncs, llkc Boulc de Suif (1880). La Maison

(1 88 1 ), Madcmo~scllc Ftfi (1882) and Be1 Am1 (1885) were

publ~shcd d w g Laforgue's life tmlr One more w n t a wlu, contributed

cons~derably to d l n n was Alpl~onx Daudet whose Lettrcs de mon

Moul~ri iuid LC I'et~t Ct~osc arc real~st~c. They described ruau as a social

bcllig wliosc bcltaviour is aIkctcd by the economic and political pmssures

or tlic b y . I l i c~r style was s~lliplc. direct a id cTT~xtivc. lliclr ~ ~ I I I was lo

bring out social abuws will1 a view to rcfornling llien~. It made an impact

on the pocts runking than aware of w~itcmpomy social issues and of

thcir responsibility to their readers

(b) Symbdbm

Unlrkc Kcalism whlch manifested itself In fiction, Symbolism

asscrtcd rtsclf In the realm of poetry. As a literary current it blew freely In

krcncli poetry dunng the second half of the nrnctcelith century whch

approxllr~atcly bcgarl w~tli CiCrard dc Ncrval, thc ga~dfathcr of

syrnbollsrn through Baudelarc thc father of Symbollsrn to V e r h c ,

Klnibaud a ~ d MallanriC wcrc the practlslng Synlbol~st poets In whose

haids Synlbolrsm as a lrtcrary movement flour~shed between 1885-1900

chrcfly w~tli tlic publ~catron of Jcat~ Moreas' Symbolist man~festo In &

III 1886 I he Symbolrsts drcatncd of attanrng beyond the

appcar&iWs a wansccrrdcntal rcalrty. Accordmg to them thc rcal world ti

~ i o t l ~ ~ n g but a rcflcct~ori of splntual unlvcrsc I hcrr poetry was rndrrcct,

rllus~vc SI~IICS 01' rnrnd, atti~cli~~ig I I I I I W ~ ~ ~ I C C to I I ~ U S I C Syrribol~st poetry

lays stress on tllc sy~libol atid rnuslc

Or1 11s s~lnplcst lcvcl a sylribol IS a concrete rcprescntatro~~ of an

abstract ~dca I t liclps to cstablrsll a 111k bctwcen the world of Ideas and

tliat ol'tlurtgs I Iic cclcbratcd pocln "Corrcspo~idances" by Baudelatre IS a

case 111 point 111 cultlvatll~g ass~duously thc symbol, the Symboht

clrm~riatcs two p~tfalls tliat of a poetry of ~dcas iuid that of a dcscnphve

pxtry 'L'hc symhol of thc sytiibol~st poet d~ffcrs at least In three aspects

fro111 thc trad~tronal svnlbol

a ) 'l'hc lnatcnal objcct wl~rcl~ symbollscs splntual rcallty 1s not

mcntloncd but suggcstcd tllrougli Ule scnscs

b) 'I he symbol cai~iot bc reduccd to a slrnple thing. 'fhere are ever

so many possrbrl~trcs whrch are evoked through synibols.

C) Thc symbol is not a proccdurc of stylc, r n ~ tnvcntron of thc poct

but a IIICUIS of knowlcdgc

' f l~c syrnbol uscd wrt11 thc compctcrlcc of a rnastcr makes the poct

dtscovcr tllc rnystcrrous a ~ d r~cccssarrly lr~rks w111ch unrlc thc apparent

world w1t11 the rnvrsrblc world bcyorld 111c Sylnbollst attached great

rt~~portmcc not orlly to tllc symbol but also to rnusrc Wagr~cr was the

r~~usrcr;ln i la n~odc whorn cvcryonc adrn~rcd and thc Sy~nbohsts wcre all

agrccd t11a1 rnustc was tllc staplc of poctry Verlanc sard

[>c la n~usrquc avant toulc chose, I-.( pour ccla prtilcre l'lrnparr"

'l'hougl~ tllcsc arc tlrc gcrlcral fcaturcs wh1c11 the Syatbolrst poets

sl~;uc, tltcy Ilad, however, thcrr ow11 ~i~d~v~dualrtrcs asserted In thclr poctry

lthc Vcrlanc's ctnpl~il~rs 011 IIIUSIC, Krlnbaud's clwac~crrst~c notton of tlic

sccr arld h2allanr1c's stress on hcrnlctlsnl

111 sllort, tllc Sylnbol~st poctry was ~n l rcc t , ~lluslvc, brealung

trad~trorral nlctcr. cxprcssrng clusivc stalcs of mind, and attactung

~lnportancc to muslc

'file word decadence horn the I ~ t c r q point of weu refers to a

rnovcrncnt by a group of young poets 111 reaction awns t the conformrsrn

of the I'antasslan school. The notable I~teraq figures who showed

allcg~a~icc to this aesthetic cult and splnt wcrc Vill~ers de I'lsle-Adam,

Il~mbaud, Vcrlalnc and Laforguc Much dccadcnt poetry was prcoccupicd

w1t11 personal cxpencncc, elaborate and exot~c sensatlons

.I Iic niovcrncrlt c~nphas~scd thc autonomy of art, the need for sensat~onalism and melodrama, cgoccntriclty, t l~c bi lmc, tllc artificial art for art's sake and tflc supenor outs~der posttlon of thc art~st MS-a- VIS soc~cty - particularly middle class or bourgeois society ' *

As i t always happens In a pcnod of decadence, the young poets

ha~ling from d~vcrs nlil~cu had some common features m poetry like

world-wcar~ricss and CIIIIUI .l'llc popular journal of thc movcmcnt was &

I)ccadc~~t 'I'l~c publ~catlon of A Kcbours (Against the Gram), wnttcn by --

J K I iuys~nanl~ 111 1884 was a rr~~lcstoric as 11 ultimately dcfincd the spint,

thc aspiratlolls and tastc of thc truc dccadcnt and symbolist Dcs Esseintcs

secrrls to Ilavc plunged ~nto a k~nd of ~ncurablc spleen The decadent poet

could not find 111 the fathcr, soc~cty, state, the necessary support to the

cd~licatio~i of perwnallty I t 1s a k~nd of escapc, and aFFcctcd mtellectual

wandcrlrig 'I'hc pxnls attached ~nlportancc to flowers, pcrfumc and

Laforguc's Artistic Background

Utll~kc many of' t l~e poets of 111s time, Laforgue was a good student

of art. tle kept up 111s mterest 111 art througl~out h ~ s stay m Germany to the

extent of be~ng known no1 as a poct but as an art cnbc HIS interest m art

-. - -- - .- -- - I' J A Cuddon, A L~ict~onaw of 1.1terw Tenns (Andre Deutsch

Great Unta~n. 1980). p. 178.

chicfly in pictorial art was something natural to him. His b r o w Emile

was a student at the h o l e des Bmux - Arts. tic had listened to Taine's

interesting lectures on Art which made Laforbpe evince keen interest m

painting. Besides, laforgue earlicr had acquired enough knowledge of art

as IIC workcd under die art cnhc Charles Ephruss~, who later on became

thc director of the Gazettc dcs Beaux - Arts Encouraged by him,

Laforguc read a lot of books on pamtmgs and took art wth the

scrtousncss ~t dcscrvcs and pard h ~ m nch dwdends in hrs later poeby.

In Novcmbcr 1882 Laforgue told Ephrussi that he felt h~mself

capable of

A scnous and colnpact volume on German contemporary artt'

with an ~ntroductron conccmed with psycboiogy and aesthetics. In

February 1883 hc wrotc to ticnry

1 a n wntmg an article 011 Impresslonlsm, an art~clc wh~ch will be translated and whlch wrll appear in a German Review, at the same time as an exhibaon by a hend in Berlin who has a dozen impress~onlsts l4

Ihis article shows the sustained argument of Morgue's interest in

Iinpressionlsm. Laforpue was fanlillar w~th revolut~onary contemporary

parntcrs like Rcno~r, hssarro, Slsley, Monet whose works were presented

In an annual edublon . lmpressiomst parntings could not win unrnediate

'".c.. Vol IV.. p. 204

" O.C., Vol v., p. 7

rccogution as they arc dlficrent from tradrtlonal art. It had to wa~t until

1883 for thc rcwgnltlon of 11s thcory of art and cven a modcst acceptance

But bcforc 1883, Laforguc had 111s own ongnal wcws on the

~rrrprcssiorrrst palnlcrs arld lrnprcsslonlsln Iic kncw Monct's

Circnourllcrc, i'rssarro's Marche St Mart~n bcsrdcs the paintings of

Monct, Kcno~r, Dcgas Monsot, and landxapcs by Monet, Boudm, Slsley

and P~ssarro 7'hcse had Icfl an ~ndcl~blc lmpresslon on the unagnaaon of

the pcxt arld h ~ s thcory of art tic devoted a year to the study of

Ir~rprcss~onrsm lo wrltc an artrclc t lc wrotc to hls fncnd

J'al fall un assc~ long artlclc dc rcvuc, unc csplrc;rtron psychologrcluc asthktrquc dc la lorrnulc Illrprcsslollrstc quc M. Bcn~stcrn tratlu~sirt lrour utre revue"

111% sound k~ru\\lcdgc of tlic lrnprcsslolrrstrc paultlng and 11s thcory

vrould liclp hr111 ti) apply ttrc tcclu~~quc to thc poenls lncludcd m

Corn~lamtcs arid Dcmlcrs Vcrs, particularly, the lattcr.

laforpuc 1s gcncrally rcgardcd as a sqmbol~st or a dccadcnt poct.

Somc cntlcs and hlstonans brackct hrm w~th Vcrlmc, krnbaud Mallarme

and othcrs who dub hlm as a dccadcnt poct along wlth Vlllc Gnffin and

tluys~nan lravc Ihcrr own rcasons Itowcvcr, thcrc arc cntlcs who qucslon

thc val~dlty of calllng hlm clthcr a Symbolist or a decadent. Accordmg to

Lcon Gurchard, Laforguc's place as a Bymbolrst p w l

ful tout simplemerit par le hazard d'une amtic celle de Gustave ~ h a n ' "

bccausc the syrnbol~st lays stress or1 Clre pure concept of symbol much

~ric~rc illail tllc OII Ilrc oll~cr aspccts Accord~i~g to I'aul Uourdc, Laforguc 1s

not a decadent poet becausc In 111s long art~cle "Les Decadents" pubhshed

In LC 'I cintJs, he is careful not to mention Laforguc as he 1s not stnctly

spcakrng about a decadent poet

1 lowcvcr, laforguc is ncitl~er a pure symbohst nor a pure decadent

but Ire partakes of the general tcndcnc~es of symbolism as well as of

dccadcnce

1.1ke a symbolist pwt, 1,aforgue reacted agalnst the poetry of the

unrncdrate past of 111s counlr). 111s poetry llke that of the Syrnbol~st poet

slrares a sense of mystery. the metaphysical angu~sh, pesslmlsm, recourse

to dream, music and Vers L,ibre though he dffered from the Symbolist

poet III us~ng d~rcct elnotion and In not being concerned wth pure symbol

i le reveals

LC scns du mystcrc, I'angorssc metaphys~que, le pcssilnlslne, le recours du r6ve "

According to I ~ i i i i pwtry

- . - . - - - . . -. . - I t b 1koi1 Gulchard, Jules laforgue et ses P&s~s, ( Pans Presses

Un~vers~tatres de France, 1950), p 24 "was simply by chance owng to a hendsh~p of Gustave Khan".

" F r a n ~ i s Kouchon, Thesis, p. 223 "Tile sense of mystery, metaphysical anguish, pess~mism, recourse to dream."

should 1101 bc at1 exact d c s c r ~ p t ~ o ~ ~ (I~kc a page In a tlovel), b111 badled In dream I n

1.1lre the symbolist poet he deals w~th agelng youth, he reiterates the

~r~onotoliy ol' cx~stct~cc, tllc ~ I I I I U I . and Irocly towards evcrytl~~ng al~d

towards oneself t-ndowed w~th l~ve Imagnatlon and sens~bll~ty, Laforgue

IS made to Imagule the ltfe of a recluse - the one whom he loves w~thout

even catching a gllrnpse of hcr Ills pl~ght IS s~rmlar to that of Orphans In

unlforn~

O pays, 0 fan~lle' ct l'&imc toutc tounldc d'heroic~ues destinies au-deli dcs .salntcs vtc~llcs fillcs et )x)ur cette annee'''

13csldcs 1,alorguc uses Vcrs Llbrc l ~ k c thc syrnbol~st poct though h ~ s

usc of Vcrs L.~hrc pvcs a h~ghly ~nd~vldual~st~c and lnnovatlve turn

l. 'c~.uwe de Lafurpue colnc~de en tous polnts avcc les tendances pnnc~pales du syrnbol~srnf"

'' StCphane Mallanr~c E11au2te. p 425 011 coia~try, oh fa1111lyI uld tllc sot11 qu~tc tunicd of hcro~c dest~n~cs bcyond the saintly old ladles and for that year

"' I;ranqc>ts Kouchoti p 223 "Laforguc's work colnc~des In all respects w ~ t h the pnnc~pal tendencies of symbolism."

Laforgue can also be called a decadent poet for more than one

reason. As a decadent he is the one

. who rejects normality which he undcrmincd or tcndcd to undermine acccpted values and convenUonal; practices2'

As a poct of his age, he reacted against wthodoxy, or a p m t

bouugcols cotnplaccncy and hypocrisy. S w Laforgue could not make

any k~nd of' compromise hc had to adopt extreme attitudes to decadents.

1 lc refuscd to come to terms wth normal life and refused to abandon his

ow11 tliougl~ts for thc sakc of wtnfortable conformity. As a dccadcnt he

illlowcd d~rcct crnotion, thc cxact rcndcnng of thc phewmcnon of Life.

'1 h ~ s world 1s too rniscrablc and at tunes he finds refuge in a world of

drcanl, flowcrs. w ~ n d and perfume. I le hunself said

Jc songc a unc p&sie qui serait de la psychologe dans une forme de rive. avec dcs flcurs, du vcnt, dcs sentcurs, d '~cx lnc .b lcs symphonies avcc une phrase (un sujet) m e l d q u e de temps en temps *

- - - - - . . . . . - - 2 ' Michael Coll~e, Lafore-, (Ol~ver & Boyd: h w l o n 1968). p. 1

zz O.C. Vol. IV. p.66. "1 dream of poctry which will be composed of psychology in the fwm of a dream. with flowers. wind. scents. inextricable symphonies with a phrase (a subject) which is mclodic. of which thc pattern reappears Erom time to time" (trans. Eric Svamy. Men of 1914. p.51.)

Worgne's Solitude

According to Laforguc, man IS born Into the world to I ~ v e a

rntscrablc solttary ltfc whrcl~ ccllocs tllc vtew of h ~ s master Schopenhauer,

wllo satd 1x1 c v ~ d c ~ ~ l cxhaustton that 11 1s really a mtscry to ltvc on earth

L3cstdcs 11c IS lcll alone and alcwf Accordrng to h ~ m , man IS

pauwc. pale ct p~etrc lnd~wdu q u ~ n'en que Iui meme dais den~ters tomen t s2 '

k.t seul sur cette terre 6 I'rnstlnct asserwe Je tlefa~s I'lnstttrct avec un nre amcrez4

'I 111s sense of solttude expressed by Laforgue makes h ~ m q u t e

nrodctn 111 tllc setlsc that t l~c rnodcrt~ rrla~r's pltght IS not very dtfl'erent

from 1.aforg11c's dcscnptton

121 sulttudc des poctes. aujourd'hw, s'efface Voic~ qu'lls sont dcs homrncs p m t Ics I~on~rncs. votct qrt'tls sent des freres 2'

I l av~ng lost hlth 111 catl~ol~c~srn. Laforguc sought consolat~on from h ~ s

f'a\oun~c ~)lrtlo.wpl~crs whose works lrclpcd htm tron~cally to develop a

pcsslntlstlc attttudc to hfc. I lc could not explam the rrresponsrble,

-- - - -

'' 0 C . Vol I . pp 75 - 76 "I'iwr. pale and patlietrc rndlvidual wlro bcl~cvcs 111 lllrnsclf that In hrs last torments"

'' lbld . "Atrd done on earth enslaved by ~nst~trct I defied lnstlnct wtth a bitter laugh "

2 5 Quoted by 1) Abraham's "L'Hcintage Jules Laforgue" In dc 11ttL:raturc com~arcc , I'aris p 57. "l'hc solitude of poets, today effaces these are the men among the men, thcsc have their brothers."

er ro lWonq progress To h m n-omen who Dye btrrh to cbddren NC ~ d e

and unfortunate

La femme hurle aux n u s . se tord et mord se: drapl; pour pot~dre des &ant- vvil; nu l l~meuu. W& 2E

Thls IS iu own poqnant poctlc midrriry ienurwcmt of lw mottle1

feehng; ~fl all de5pa.u arid sorrow

Thai he d x e k at length ori the hunlan corned~ of Ule etrrrlal p l o b l e i ~ ~

of hfc U e h q m love deaLh etc . winch be;et h u i i u ~ .M ttie nld of

tlir. poem "Lltarues de; n x a e ; ', he _:a];;

La faun. 1 arnom. I'e-qorr la maladie - P u s la mort. c'en toujours la meme comedie"

These o b s m a t i m may appezr to be the poeuc eqxe;siotu of a

nxerable youLh Tliey ma!. lack bis acute ul;@~t of a manu-? poet

However. the), are so man!. -11pt; on Iu; part to zn-e valt to lu;: ultsn~e

feelulg of sorrow over the ewnal vartle; of kfe It L; in latrr ponn; that

Lafo~gue would move away from >such idex ui prefa-nice to

u~lpressiotu-luc poetq. arid ~ ~ p s n r ~ l a ~ or1 Vet-s Libre

:" Oi: . p 35 "'Xotnen howl through the r q h t a.n!lmq and bltuq thar sheet; to hach \de. unfortunate m d ungr3eful prosen)." (.trar~ hhchael (I:obe. Laforrue. p 3 j

2- Ihld "Hur~ger, love, hope Illnes; Then death It 1s aln-ays the sarne comedy" (,tr,uls hhchael Cohe. Laforguc. p 2S )

Obsession with Dtach

Another major theme that 1s irequcr~lly used In h ~ s poems 1s death.

In fact 11 IS an obsessron wlth hlrn, he makes frequent menbon of ~t Not

only docs he present death as something all pervading, all powerful but as

something hauntrnp and to be dreaded Death ultimately becomes a

mctaph>,srcal absuactlon to h ~ m On ~ t s slrnplest level,

L,a piupart ~ l t ct mcurt sans souwonncr I hlsto~re du globe cornbicn rncmc s-en vont Sans avolr seulement kls~te leur plani.teZb

In another pocm the premature dcath of m~serable chldren IS dcscnbed

L a mottle m e w avant un an. dans la mlsere Sans compter Ics rnorts-nes bons cachcr sous terre ''

Thc thcmc of dcath has al\xays been the burden of the poet Even m his

poem \\-nttcn In hls last years tus obscss~on with death IS very prormnent.

O Nature. releve mol le front' h ~ s q u e . t6t ou tard nous mourrons "'

I h O C . p 23 "Most pcoplc I ~ v c and d ~ c uithout the rdea o i the history of thc world .. How rnany w l l go away without cvcn hawng b ~ s ~ t e d thcu planet‘. (trans Mlchael Collie, Laforme. ~ 2 8 )

?' 0 C . p 35 "tlalf-d~c w ~ h m a ?car, not countlng the st111 blrths good only for concealing the earth " (bans Mlchael Coll~e, Laforpe, ~ 2 8 )

O.C., 11p 191

Ucsidcs, LaForguc's observation on dcath is not only astonisllingly

l~rop l~c t~c but also lcnds itsclf lo rnctaphysical abstraction.

OUI, ce monde est bien plat, quant a I'autre, sornettes. MOI, jc vais resigncr, sails espoir a ma mort"

It 1s true that in the poems In Le Sanalot de la terre he is bying to

go deep I-lowever, 11 IS not compat~ble with th~ngs of the extenor world.

As Laforwe was not happy In publtsh~ng thts collection of poems, tt was

glvcn up for the noncc Therefore he postponed 11s publtcatlon to a later

stage wlicn lie would find time to make necessary changes.

In fact all thc thcmcs havc alrcady k n used In LC Sanrlot dc la

and tllcy w~dcrgo unprovcmcnt III hts latcr poems w~th

soph~sticatlon aid mastcry so that Uie next volurnc Lcs Comolau~tcs is to

show grcatcr hold ovcr Uic fonn and cxplo~t cvcr so many tccluuques

wll~cl~ arc rnnovativc and revolutionary. khs next collect~on of poems

Cotr~vlillntcs coiltlnucs In the sanc vcln as Lc Sandot de la Terrc. It has

its own rncnts 111 that the poet who IS tncurably pess~trusttc slowly comes

to tcnns wit11 l~fc and comcs out w~th a rclat~vcly o p t m s t ~ c note.

Laforguc says

"0 Naturc, lift up iny hcad, For sooner or latcr we shall die." (trans Michael Collie, Laforeuc, p. 1 15).

'I O.C., Vol. I , p.56 "Yes, this world is qwtc flat, as for the other, it's a fmy-tale For myself I am reslgncd to my fate, and wtthout hope, to kill time while wiuting for dcath". (trans. Michael Collie, Laforme, p.29)

L' Homme n'est qu'un insecte sous les cieux; mais qu'il se respecte el il est bien Dieu. Un spasme de la creature avant toute la nature3'

Refemng to Les Comolaintes he says

Mon volume de vers etait un ramassis de petites saleth banale et je le f a s avec rage.)'

Laforguc's A n a m e r r of Human Comedy

The earllest poems are lncluded in Le Sanelot de la Tenpthe

publication of which was suppressed being too rhetorical and denvidive.

Most of the poems were written when he was in Pans between 1880 and

1882" Tl~ey are esscnt~ally the poetic expresstons of a cyn~cal youth,

an adolcsccnt who believes In the Importance of his own doubts and quest~onulgs35

The poems deal with the misery of the world in all its negative

aspects. misery, &scase, decay, solitude and death haunt man at every

stage of his life Laforgue highlights his acute awareness of human

comedy In the great drama of human existence. He says

l2 0 C.. VoI Ill, p. 238 "Man 1s n o h n g but an insect under the sloes; but he respects himself and hc IS good God. A spasm of the crcaturc is worth the whole naturc."

" 0 C , Vol. I, p 112 "My volume of vcrse was a wllectiou of hnle banal dirts and 1 &d it with rage." (trans. M~chael Collie, Laoforrue, p.34).

" Marie - Jeanne Drury, Jules Laforrrue (Paris: Seghew), p.82 She says that poems included in Le Sanalot de la Terre were witten betwcen 1 880 and 1882.

'-, O.C.. Vol., pp. 43-44.

La vic cst unc cllose bruyantc ct mutilc. La terre est nee, la terre mourra, $'aura ete un Ccl;llr dans la nu~t N'cLt - 11 pas micux valu I'ktenute nolre '"

Laforgue 1s also considered to be a dilettante besides belng a

decadent. No more IS Laforgue a tragc Buddlust as he was In Le Sandot

dc la 'I'crrc where he was pouring out h ~ s heart on the mlsery and agony of

earth In h ~ s Les Cornolantes he becomes a Buddh~st dilettante Kefemng

to the poems In Les Compla~ntcs he observes

Avant J'Ctals bouddh~stc traglque, et mantenant je slus bouddh~stc d1lctrantc.J~ poss8dc ma languc d'unc facon plus mlnltletlse, plus clownesque."

Urll~kc thc pcssunlst, Laforbwe accepted llfe as 11 was. The

cmmnstanccs of h ~ s llfc made h m prefer a downright pose comrnentlng

upon lifc at largc Iaforguc 1s a dilettante. Wntlng to the bluc-stockmg

Multzer m 1882. hc confcsscs

Now 1 an1 a chlcttantc In cvcrythmg, from tinlc to timc bouts of wuversal spleen I watch the carmval of life passing by. policcmcn, arhsts, sovcrelgns, m s t e r s , lovers, etc., 1 smoke blond clgarenes, 1 wnte poetry

I" 0 C Vol IV p.43-44 Life is a bnght and useless thlng The earth is born, the earth w~l l b e ; ~t would have bccn a tiglltnlng m t l~c mght. Would ~t not be better than eternal darkness .

" L.A., p 41 "Befon: 1 was a trapc Buddhist; and now 1 an a Buddh~st dilettante ... 1 possess my language m a fashion more minute and more like a clown."

and prosc, pcrhaps also do a little ctchmg and await death ''

'l'hc poems lncludcd In Lcs Corn~la~ntcs deal with the lovers who

arc worldly and synonymous w1t11 malc dilcttantcs. nlcy arc too rcfincd

and soph~stlcatcd rcally to bchcvc m love. Usually the gr l is moccnt and

trcatcd morc as a sex object than an actlve parnclpant. The very t~tle

"Complaultc du pauvrc chcvahcr crrant" is an example where the poet

says

lnstlncts - levants sounant par les fentes, MCditat~ons un do@ a la tcmpc, Souvenirs cllgnotant comme des lampes, Et, battant lcs comdors, V ~ I I I S cssors I ,cs I)~letta~it~siries cllargCs de colliers de remords7"

Caught I I I tllc pallrcc oftlic pocl's soul, 111s tilst~ncts are arouscd and assert

thcmsclves Thcre 1s a medlatlon, van sorties Into the hallways But the

actions of the dllcttantc kn~ght errant are heavy wlth remorse.

l ~ f o r g u c as a Dandy

l'hc att~tudc of lhc d~lcttautc IS counccted w ~ t h Laforgue's pose as a

dandy. In fact hc 1s callcd a dandy along w t h Baudelme and Tnstan

Corblcrc l h c word dandy should not be councctcd wlth the connotahons

-- .~ . .. ..

" O . C . , Vol IV, pp.122-3

' q ~ ~ . ~ o l I , p 118 Ris~ng - instincts peeplng out at the chinks medltatlons finger to brow, memones wavering like lamps, and Dilcttantc~sms - vain verve roamlng the comdors burdcn with the pc~ldant of remorsc.

of frivolity and ostentahous &splay which it acquired in the late

nincteenth ccntury But a a t tms Baudelaman sense of its bcmg

anstocrahc, lronic cult of the self

It IS above all the ardent need to be on@, whde remmning wthln the external l m t s of convention ... It is the pleasure of astomshmg and the proud sahsfachon of never belng astomshed "

The dandy's type of beauty ~s seen at ~ t s best m an an of coldness and

~ndlffercnce whlch come from an aston~shmg resoluhon never to be

moved by the thmgs around h m He w hke a latent fire whch has to be

dblncd though ~t 1s not expllclt.

a Laforgue wasldand! In thc correctness of manner and appearance

whlch offcrs h ~ m a convenient distance fiom the soc~al and cultural norms

thls corrcctncss would seem to unply Bes~des, thls enabled the poet for

uonlc play In llfe and art Th~s came m handy to him because the medum

he uscs m poetry IS Irony whch IS used consistently so that hls

mvolvemcnt IS not percelvcd Smce ctymolo~cally uony means

dsscmblmg, a dandy's statements also become qulte conmcmg though

~ron~cal Thc dandy passes and sm~lcs, the masque of the smile assumes

and conceals h ~ s rcal intcntlons However, Laforgue's dandyism does not

r c m hddcn for long Laforguc re- known at last

40 Charles Baudelmre, Oeuvres Com~letes (Lausanne.. La Guilde du liwe, 1967) Vol. I. p. 1258 - 1262.

35

Laforgue - the Poet oiEnnui

D~mng thc fin-de-s~eclc a fccllng or ~nstabihty and ennu spread

ac:os> 1-uropc Thc reconc:!~aticn c,f ;he people of Emopean counmcs

accclcntcd by the first world war, as wcU as thm decepbon after the^

pretended ~ ~ c t o r y , rnanlfcsts ltsclf In vanous arhshc fonns which were

bizarre and shochng m a tidied but dscordant volce. Emu is a moral

state uhlch causes &scornfort m the mhwdual and prevents hun from

taking acnve lntercst in an).throg. It was a favounte theme for the

symbohst poets In general and Baudelatre and Laforye in particular.

They make frcquent reference to t Jm &e whch afflicted the

~ndnidual In the second half of the runeteenth century. In BaudeIaue~s

"An Lccteur" ennw IS lkcncd to Satan and In '-Voyage" to desert m

Vcrlanc's Pocmcs Saturnlens. Laforgue's obmlibons on ennw are

scattered In hls poems lnctudcd m Lc Saplot de la Tern, Les com~lamtes

and Morai~tCs Leccnhrcs In h s Les Com~lantes alone there are a

nurnbcr of poems l k e "Complamte sur certaxn ennu", "Complamtes des

ennuis prch~stonques*', "Complamte du vent qw s'ennui la nut"

ctc .dealing wwlth ennu. Ln Laforgue ennu1 ~s presented m ever so many

forms It IS a borcdom such as a c t s the soul; lt renders all acbon

unposs~blc. For Instance, the poet is devoured by ennui on seem& the

hoUo~ncss and prctenslons that lurk behnd the church-goers on Sunday

m "IIhmanches" Laforwe hated Sunday as he assocllited \nth ~t dullness

and loncl~ncss His &p~cbon of ennui antielpates the modem personages

crcated by Same and Camus, \lcbms of nausea and the absurd

respectively Laforye tnes m vam to free hmself l7om h s spin&

malase all the hme playmg wth ~ t . In fact he smgs h ~ s "complainte" m

order to escape from ~t Consequently h ~ s complaints are never-enhg.

Laforgue's dilettantism helps hrm to play with the notion of ermui. The

poetic landscape is coloured by ennu as it is coloured by spleen in

Baudelare

Le Spleen de Laforgue, s'll est moins nor, n'est pas moins profo nd, rnoins s i n h e ''

Ennui is the result of one's sharp intehgence and keen awareness of

h s environment. The more he is intelligent the more he becomes aware of

~t and he becomes a wctm to ~ t . . At hmes the effect of ennu IS expressed

m the repehtlon of a word whch IS used to express an emotronal mental 3v

state m the fourth poem m Dem~ers V e n b e e g wth the repehhon of

the word 'autumn' Bes~des, autumn s y m b o k s the mood - the drawn

curt-, falllng leabes arc all f& symbols of ennu and despau.

Laforguc 1s able to catch even the slow and c o m p l m g rhythm of ennui

m his lines when he says

La We eSt q u o h d l e ~ c Tachons de wvre monotone 42

Lnforgue and hb Pierrot Poems

Laforgue is a poet who projects a plethora of personae in hs poetry.

The most famous among them 1s Lord herrot or clown in a cmus who 1s

a f d a r figure m France. Laforgue lncludes in hts L 'htabon de Notre-

Dame La Lune forty one poems of whch twenty three deal with "Pimot

- 4 ' Leon &chard, Laforme et ses ~oekies, p.79.

42 O.C., Vol. 11, p 155 "Life is routine let us Live monotonous."

I-V" and "Locutions dc I'icrrot". Hc tncs to move away from

~nctaphysical rulgulsh to uonrcal dctachmcnt and h s use of Picrrot is not a

poctic convcrlic~~cc alonc to alr hrs v~cws Ihc3crrot figure had a strange

fascination for hlln wll~ch datcs back to h s sojourn m Gcnnany when he

wrote to Mmc Multzer m Februrary 1882:

Adorcz vous lc clrquc7 Jc vlcns d'y passcr cinq souecs consecutlves Les clowns me paralssent amvees a la walc sagcssc C'cst trrcvocablcmcnt fm~. N' est-ce pas qu'll est trop tard pow queje m'y mette 43

'I'hls fasclnatlon has a k~nd of mental parentage for Laforgue, he

could scc 111 thc clown a happy blcndmg of senousncss and buffoonery

cxlst~ng ,srmultancously In 111s Ihcrrot poems, Laforgue finds a

compromrsc by adoptlng towards all cxpencnce a d~strustful, uomcal

att~tudc to llfc lic uses the namc of Rcrrot not only m the tltles but also

111 tflc body of thc yocms Ihcrrot 1s thc narrator m thc poems. Laforgue

bcrng a ruhllrst, IS ablc to projcct h ~ s vrcws qutc convlncmdy through

I'lcrrot. Laforguc uses Ihcrrot In cvcr so many roles He 1s a symbolic

charactcr, hc 1s always prcscntcd m h s rclatlons wlth women as m "AutTe

Compla~ntc dc Lord Rcrrot" or "I?errot Furmste". He IS used m vanous

ways to rllustratc the dlcmma of scxual relahons among the bourgeoisie

of UIC nmctccnU~ ccntuy or hls mamagc w ~ t h Colombmcttc. The Plcrrot

fibwc camc m handy to thc poct to exprcss h s vicws and stdl remam

dctacllcd. It IS truc that Laforguc uscd P~crrot as h s persona, but the

4' 0. C., IV, p.123 "Have you seen the eucus? 1 have just come to spend six consecubve cvenlnys. The clowns seemed to me having come to true wisdom. It is irrevocably over. Is it not too late for me to adopt it."

in difference is the same&acb case. Pinion has rightly pointed ont the

inherent c o n ~ c t i o o s in the poet-hero:

For Ldorgue the Pierrot came to typify the blend of the serious and comical, or the noble and the sordid, those paradoxes of life which made Pope (and Hamlet) see man as the glory, jest and the riddle of the world."

Lnfotgme u am lmpnuionht Poet

Besides being a poet, Morgue was a d i s t i n m art critic. He

evinced keen interest in impresionist paintings. He was h m i h with

French impressionist painters like Edouard, Monet, Renoir, Degas and

German painters like Cornelius and Pre-Raphaelite painters of Englad

In 1882 he became an art critic to La Gazette des Beaux Arts and its

supplement Cboniaues des Arts et de la Cunmte. . . .

What Morgue says about impressionist painting holds good for the

poems in his Les Comolaintes and Derniers V-. The philosophical view

that he held at the time agreed well with his views on impndonism. For

instance, Hartman's "Law" of the Unconscious is a means by which the

truth of a given moment is released. Laforgue used his favourite image of

Clavier to explain his view of man and his existence. Accordq to him

man is an inshument on which exist- happened to play in a catain

W o n . Thougb this lacked absolute sSIIldard it had actually bappeoad to

himlividual.This~offhoughtllPhPallyledhimontottbeuseofthis

technique of the kqmsionist paiatczs in his poetry. In a sense Laf;orgue

" F.B. Pinion, A u J (Ladm: hhbcndh), p.65.

life. I n a I c ( t e r t o ~ h 0 s a y s :

~ ~ i ~ o f ~ p i m m a ~ ~ ~ ~ a m a b ~ v e all the social glitter by a thousd miles, thae is nothing but art"

L a f i swears by art as Verlaine swears by music. To the former

art is the only an- if it accommodstcs the anarchies seea in lifc. Many

for and experiment m writing poems after the . .

mlshcd.

an art which was without rhetoric, that is without false posing. and which did justice to the plain f i s t of things as they wem observed to be."

Morgue himxIf offers a clue to the moment of perception, intense

expgience of the cxtanal world, in his obsavatioa . . 0aImpEw

a l'aa&mique ne voit que le dessio ext&kur enfamarit le mod&, il wit 1CS fttjkS ligms vivaotts sans forme gbdhiqut mais bik & milk touches h g u l i h qui, de loin, ktablissent la vie... L'bprcsionistc voit c4 r e d la natudle t e k qu'ellc e!&,~'cstIidirclmiquanentalvilnatiaoscdarCes.~~

46 C., p. 14

The impressionist method of writing poem is evident in his later

poems, for mstance, in "Complamte d'un autre Dimanche" Laforgue gives

an impressionistic description of the landscape:

C ' W t un tres-au vent d'octobre paysage, Que dkwupe, aujourd'hui dimanche, la fenetre, Avec sa jalousie en @avers, hors d'usage, Chi &he, depuis quand une paire de M t r e s Tachant de deux mals blancs ce glabre ~ a ~ s a ~ e . ~ '

By an impressionist evocation, the poet expresses the m a h e which

he feels, bs financial misery which is at once affective and metaphysical.

In fact he projects a wndltion or hs own state. The sensasions are all

negahve. Some of the notahons of colour transform into an absence of

colour. The painter-poet is very much in the evocation of a Sunday like

the others, the ennu, the banality, the landscape with its uglmess.

The poet does not hesitate to employ strange expressions. Even the

first expression "d'octobre paysage" (October landscape) is made precxse

by the touches typ~cal of the ~mpressionist through groups of words like

'tres-au vent" or changu~g an adjective into a noun "suppurant du livide"

Another sPiking impress~omsoc passage from Derniers Vers :

0 ghniurns dlaphanes, guerroyetm sortileges, Sacrileges monomanes! Emballages, devergondages, douches! 0 pressoirs Des vendanges des grands soirs! Layettes aux h i s ,

C., p.54. "It was a windy October landscape framed up to-day Sunday, by the Window with its blinds athwart and disused, and where dry up, no one knows from where a pair of which strain the smooth landscape with two white patches."

Thyrses au fond des bo~s! Transfusions, represallles, Relevailles, compresses et l'etemelle pot~on, Angelus! n'en pouvoir plus De deblcles nuptiales! de deblcles n~ptiales!''~

This passage is noted not for its metaphysical quality as T.S.Eliot

contends in his essay on "Metaphysical Poets" but for its impressionist

quality The expert assemblage of words - some suggesting violence,

others compression and the other obscure words likk'layettesf ';elevaiUesr

'~ngelus:' m e m g baby-clobg, churchings, religon, apparently sign@

happy marned Me as opposed to the debacles nuptiales.

Towards the end of nineteenth century there was a widespread

feelmg among the French poets that the traditional classical French could

be no more effective to express their complex feelings in a different age.

By 1886 Walt W t m a n ' s "Leaves of Grass", Rimbaud's "Marine" and

"Mouvement" f?om Illumurations and Gustave Khan's collected poems

Palas Nomades were published inauguratmg the emergence and

popularity of Vers Libre.

49 " 0 diaphonous geraniums, war loving sortileges, Sacrilegious monomaniacs! Packing, wantonnesses, showers! 0 wine-presses Of the vintages of the Great Days! Layettes at bay, Thyrsis in the depths of the woods! Transfusions, reprisals, Churchings, compresses and the eternal potion, Angelus! to be worn out With nuptial deblcles! with nuptial dkbbles!

Vers Libre is also known as "open form" verse or free verse. On its

simplest level it is like the traditional verse m so far as it is printed in short

h e s . But it is distinguished fiom the traditional French as it has

no regular meter or h e length and depends on natural speech rhythms and the counterpoint of stressed and unstressed syllable.50

Reasons for the Emergence of Ven Libre

Though Vers Libre was used by a number of poets earlier in a

scattered way, the creht goes to the ymbolist poets who consciously h,

brought about a revolutionz& change in versiiication. They fieed

themselves fiom the metrical regularity of the Alexandrine. Secondly there

was a gradual loosenu~g of verse which facilitated to radiate a number of

readmgs of a p m c d a r line with a stress on the subjechve qualities of

poetry as opposed to purely prosodic ones. Besides

The prosody of fiee verse is often regarded as a prosody of the voice centering on the duration of the syllables and patterns of cadence5'

and thirdly

the pursuit of expression ... has given a special prominence to tone a- prosodrc structure, as the mdhptier and compounder of meantng.''

5" Karl Beckson and Arthur Gant. Literarv Terms , (Great Britain: An& Deutsch, 1990), p. 95.

Clive Scott, French Verse Art, (CUP: London, 1980), p 183

s2 Ibid.

The V m Lib* thacforc felt the need for a new form for their complex

thoughts and feelings of the modern poct which in a way are diffcrnt

fiom those of the vasifiers of the earlier gareration.

Though there is no consensus among critics as to the o r i p a m of

Vers Libre, Uure can be no two opinions about Laforgw's importance as

one of the two major inovators in Vets Libre, the other bung Gwtave

Khan who is more a thcoretiuan than a pactitioner of the form. They

were followed by Stuart Menill and Vicll-m who were the

subsequent practationm of V m Libre. The poets were no more subjected

to rigorous rules with regard to the length of the line and the stanza

To Laforguc the use of V m Libre is neither a theoretical

vindication nor a poetic convenience but a dire necessity. Whetha or not

he was aware of the theoretical subtleties in the use of Vas Libre, it is

c a t d n that he proved himself to be its innovator. Bung vay much the

child of his age, he found that the W o n a l Pnnassitn vasificarion was

not flexible enough to xcomrncdak his psychic, emotional and

individual feelmgs. Therefore V m Libre became the vuitable substit&.

Gourmont mote:

Le vrai v a s libre, est c o q y conrme teL c'est a din. commelFngmartdeosintsurlemodttbeson* hotive, d non plus ddsmiat pp la loi 5xc du n~mbre.~'

Wheri I'ound obser~ed that

orir should wnte free verse when one must'.'

he meant the competent use of vers l~b re when the tradihonal form fads to

express the subtle nuances of feel~ngs But he had m nund the competent

use of'vers l~bre by Laforkme too

Laforpue'a verslficahon IS sometlung u q u e Qmte In keeplng w t h

h ~ s genlus lus poetlc progress from trad~honal form to the new type of

vers~ficat~on was slow. steady and systemahc In h s poems ~ncluded m

Sanglot de la 'Terre, the domlnant metncal forms are quatrams and A.

Alevandnne Burjthe first poem ~ncluded In Les Comula~ntes. '-Preludes

Autoblopaph~ques", the llnes are alexandrine

Xlalntenant. tu n'as pas cm d e ~ o u rester col Eh blen. un cn humant s'll en reste un pour to^"

i3ur soon L.aforrwe was able to see the Inadequacy of the

alcxar~dnrlc and was qu~ck to reproach

C)uc ces alexandnns et ces nmes altemees' Vous font du tort' Etes vous SI paresseux Oue vous acceptlez I'alesandnn pour des pleces SI balbut~ees de langue et SI ~nfirues de decor' C)n y perd en ~nsa~sissable'"

- -- - -. -

il Ezra Pound. A Retrosuect. p 12

" ~ . ~ 3 5 Now. you perhaps thought that you should not keep your mouth shut Wcll heave a human c q l d there was one for you ."

'" L A , p 6.5 "How much harm 1s done by those alcxandnnes and alternate rhymes. Arc you so lazy as to accept the alesandnnes as del~cate pleces of language a11d such ~nf in~ te Items of the decor that actually one IS lost In mtanpbles "

But this does not mcan that hc wmpletcly gave up the alexandrine.

ths poct~cal works show that quatrans and alcxandnnes are used but the

use of vcrs l~brc gcts pnonty In the poc~ns included m hers vers At

tlmcs vcn lrbrc and regular llncs srdlc alongs~de as m "L'tLver q u ~ went",

for ~ristancc

Nori, ~ionlc'est la satson et la planete falot' 2+4+4+2

()UC I'autan, quc I'autan 3 13 I:n?loctic Ics savatcs quc Ic 'I cmps se tncotc

3+3+3+3 C'cst la saxson. oh dCchrrcmentlc'est la =son

4-4+4 I ous Ics axis. tots Ics =is. 3+ 7 J'essaxcral en choeur d'en donner la note

3 + 24 3+2"

I3i1t laforgue's expennientatlon w~th vcrs l~brc starts from the

~mrr i s ~ncludcd In Lrs CornpIa~!im and reaches soph~sucat~on In the

ixxrns 111 L&-rnmr$Vg~ 'I 111s IS justrtied In h ~ s statenlent. 1.4. &

Auxjourd'hul que je s u ~ s sceptlque ct quc je m'em LJle rnocris asclncnt, d'autrc part. JC posscde ma langue nllnttxeuse. plus clownesque"'

' ? 0 c' Vol I I p 143 "No, no1 11's thc season. a id ttic planct's grotesquet May the gales from thc soudl unravel the slrppcn tlmc Lrn~ts for hxmselP 11's the season. oh aigwsh, thc scasont tvcrv !car. cvcry vcar. 1 wtll try as In chorus to grvc rt rts tone " (trans M ~ c l w l Coll~e, Laforgu~). p 1 16

' " O C v p21 "Nowadays, I am more scepttwl. I pet wmcd away less easily, and from anothcr pomt of wcw 1 posscss my l a n p g c In a more prcctse way, a more clown-11kc way." (trans. Mrcliacl Coll~e, Laforrue), p.38.

lal'orgue wantcd to stay w ~ t h as l~tt lc constrant as poss~bic without

any definite attcinpt at mus~cal~ty Neverthclcss, Laforguc was very

cllrclul In 111s lnus~cal pllras~rlg and IIC was very mucll concerned w ~ t h thc

way h ~ s ywwns sounded

C'cst I'automnc. I'automnc, I'automne, Lr grand vent ct toutc sa sCqucllc 1)c rcprcsa~lles ct de rnuslqucs~ K~dcaitx t~rcs. clOturc an~~ucllc. C'tlttle tlcs feu~lles, des Artt~gones, des Wltlon3les,"+

I hc rcrrsolt lor 111s vcrs l~brc v~brat~ng w ~ t h muslc IS that during his

trine Wagner was the mustclan a la mode and no wonder he caught the

W;~g~twirui ~nuslcd fcnour likc dlc Sjmbol~st poets, Uaudcla~rc and

Vcrlalnc I lloitgh hc dld not swcar llke Vcrlanc on thc placc of muslc In

Ixwtn. lalorguc u a s convlnccd 01- the mportancc of music m poem

1)tt~ardln I(M) ~rnprcbscd upon LAorguc ttlc wrrcspondcncc bctwcen

U ;Ipi.lrt;ui IIIUSIC and N r s librc

Jc tric'ctals d ~ t qu'a la fonnc rnus~quc l~brc dc Wagncr d c m ~ t corrcspondre wte forme pcxsic llbre .Et c'est prcclscIrwnt cc quc j 'cxposa~s a Laforguc, lors dc notre prenltcre rcncontre, fin Mars 1886. a Berlln '" .

** 0 C' . Vol I I p 155 "It's auttmn. aut~unn. autwnn. tllc 111gh ~ l n d and 11s whole bilm of rcpr~siils and Itltrslc C'urta~ns drawn the scau>ns end, the fall of leaves, of A~~tigoncs, ofpl~ilo~nclils." (trans M~chacl Collic, Lafor~uc, p 1 17 )

n8 ldoilard Lhjardt~r. & Premiers P d t e s du Vws L.lbre, 1922, p 63 "I was told that ttlc forni of Wabmcr's muslc l~bre should correspond to thc fonn o f f r ~ ~ : pcx~ . . And that is prcciscly what I exposed to Laforguc, dunng w first mcetmg, end of March 1886. at Bn tm."

But Dujardin was introduced to Laforgue by a Wagnarian M

This shows that Laforgue was already exposed to Wagner's music. His

tines too give one the feeling that be uses words to give mnsical effect

S i m i l a r t o t h a t o f V ~ .

Ilbnrinc; Dans la foret mouillb les toiles d'am+es Ploient sous les gouttes d'eay et c'est ieur n6ne.111~'

TheselioesprovethatLaforgue'scoacerntopmducemusicafeffect

of the same type:

But Morgue's verse is fkee and Verfaine's is not Like Valaine

wfio used words Wtc piem, p i e 4 cmm, M m too achieves musical

effect using words like "bruine", "nrine", "modI&sn, "arraignkd"' It is

contended that Lafw was inffuenced by Wah Whitman as be

h a n s ~ s o m e p o c m s o f W a l t ~ w i t h b e h e f p o f h i s w i f t L c a h .

Thisobsavat ioDisval idinsoFarasLaf~wascxposadto Walt

'' O.C., V d II, p.143. "It is dnaling; in the tabdrenched forrst, the spider webs give bexmth th wata drops: aud ttlat tbeir downm." (b;ms. MiChad Conic, Lafornue. p.115)

" Vahrine, cd. Joanna Richardson, p.172. "Twrs f i ~U in aty heart Asminsrainsonan~ W b a t ~ w b . t t u r r t Doessoentermy heart"(-. J o a r m ~ ~ V a f a i n e : ~ a p.172).

Whitman's vers libre. But Laforgue's vers libre has nothing in common

with Walt Whitmrm's. Some are of the view that Laforgue was inkmced

by the free verse of Rimbaud and Verlaine. In fact ttre ae&ztics of these

poets are merent h m that of Morgue. What is chanrctaistc about the

\rks hbre is that each poet can interpret it m his own way. Walt

Whitman's free verse obviously relates to the Bible in the repetition of

words, the rhythmic structure aad the cadenced prose; Verlaine's notion

of free verse is syaonymous witb his idea of prose; Rimbaud's k libre

represents a series of experiments rather than a coherent prosody:

Morgue's notion of Vers Libre adheres to the traditional verse

lengths, but syllables are counted as they might be spoken ratk than with

the iixed regularity traditionally observed m the literary language.

Lafmgue, in his p o w . makes judicious use of a number of devices

like neologisms. Neologism means ' innodon in language'. Ncologisns

are used m languages all the time. Such innovations become bevitable in

tbe course of the development of any Irmguage. Where them is no one

word for an idea or if there is a word for it and is not inkrdng in itselfto

produce the desired effect then neologisms come in. A h g to this,a

new word is coined yoking two words togetha. Thqr are play on words

used in an aesthetic way to arrest the reader's attention. Some of the

words which 6nd lkqucnt mention m his poans arc "Crip~sc*".

"Angtl~" ' , "Exjlescent", "Od-de-chat". "volupliales", "Pi&uos& . n

Thc noun atpuscule, a cololaful adjective, with its suffix "W scquires

a w v e meaning. Another d o g i s m is '&use' used in

"Complrnntc dc debas I~ t td ra td ' . It a a form of thc vcrb 'angeluser', a

ncolog~s~r~ which has tllc mciullng of sprcad, by the nnglng ofangulus, yct

another word IS 'cx~lcscent' dcnvcd fro111 the word cxd, and the

lnchoat~vc w111cl1 tends to comc ~nto cxllc 'Oc~l-dcchat' (cat's eye) 1s a

ncologlsrn fbrmcd on the model of 'Oell-de-boeuf (bull's eye).

'Scxc~proqucs' IS anothcr neologsm based on 'reclproque'

' I o sun1 up, Laforpuc's progrcss as a French dccadcnt poct has 11s

own llrn~ts and I~m~tat~ons ihs shor twmgs as a poet arc coloured by a

streak of melancholy and cynictsm wtuch arc cssent~ally due to tus

cxpcrlcncc III 111s early Ilfc-lack of parental love, financial &flicult~cs, a

sc11.w of' tcrnblc loncl~ncss and an incurable pesslmlstlc att~tude to 11fe

I hougli thcw cch;iractcnstlcs arc sufficlcnt to dub Laforbwc as a med~ocre

dcwadcr~t I.rctlcl~ ~ x x t . tbcrc arc clear rn&catlons that in tus poems

lncludcd III ! X S C'omylzuntcs and 1)crnlct-s Vcrs he was movlng away from

r~tcrcl? glv~np cxprcsslon to ills bitter cxpencrtcc In llfc to mak~ng tus

p w t n wl)h~st~catcd, a r t~s t~c and rnodcnr~st~c Ilc endowcd thc Intenor

111on01op w~th shadcs of m m n g h~thcrto unexplored to wmmumcate

complcx rncan~ngs I tc 1s an in&sputable Innnovator of Vcrs l~bre more as

a practlt~oncr than as a thmtrclan Accordmg to Wallace Fowl~c,

L;1Topuc cst i'~nnovatcur d'unc nouvcllc scrls~ I ~ C ~ t l q l r e '" t

ILs ach~cvcmcnt as an mnnovator who pavcd thc way for modemsm and

cxpcnmc~ltat~on In vcrs~ficatlon. chlcfly m Vcrs Llbre, IS bang slowly

rccoplscd. And thc pocts who drcw h m b s well arc no lcss than vew

-. - - - . . . . - - - . *' W. Fowl~e, "Jules Isfbrgue", 195 1, V. p. 78

renowned writers like R b y de Gounnont, Paul V a l e in France, and

Eliot, Pouad, Crane and Stevens in the United States.