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    Jules Laforgue

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    Jules Laforgue was a French poet born in Uruguay who was educated in Paris. He was influenced by other poets like Rimbaud and Verlaine and wrote in various experimental styles. He suffered from poverty and tuberculosis throughout his life. His poetry was characterized by bitter irony, especially towards women, experimentation with form, and themes of loneliness, death, and ennui. He helped develop styles like symbolism and vers libre that influenced later poets like the Surrealists.

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    Jules Laforgue

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    186 views3 pages
    Jules Laforgue was a French poet born in Uruguay who was educated in Paris. He was influenced by other poets like Rimbaud and Verlaine and wrote in various experimental styles. He suffered from poverty and tuberculosis throughout his life. His poetry was characterized by bitter irony, especially towards women, experimentation with form, and themes of loneliness, death, and ennui. He helped develop styles like symbolism and vers libre that influenced later poets like the Surrealists.

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    Jules Laforgue was a French poet born in Uruguay who was educated in Paris. He was influenced by other poets like Rimbaud and Verlaine and wrote in various experimental styles. He suffered from poverty and tuberculosis throughout his life. His poetry was characterized by bitter irony, especially towards women, experimentation with form, and themes of loneliness, death, and ennui. He helped develop styles like symbolism and vers libre that influenced later poets like the Surrealists.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    186 views3 pages

    Jules Laforgue

    Uploaded by

    api-357156106
    Jules Laforgue was a French poet born in Uruguay who was educated in Paris. He was influenced by other poets like Rimbaud and Verlaine and wrote in various experimental styles. He suffered from poverty and tuberculosis throughout his life. His poetry was characterized by bitter irony, especially towards women, experimentation with form, and themes of loneliness, death, and ennui. He helped develop styles like symbolism and vers libre that influenced later poets like the Surrealists.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
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    Jules Laforgue (1860-1887):

    Life
     Born in Uruguay but educated at l’École des Beaux-Arts in Paris.
     Was greatly influenced by Tristan Corbière, Arthur Rimbaud, and German philosopher
    Arthur Schopenhauer
     Suffered from poverty, consumption, and chronic pessimism throughout his entire life.
     Championed and critiqued the Impressionists. His critical essays and art reviews are of as
    much weight as his poetry
     Became the reader to the German Empress Augusta for five years.
     Married an English woman in London, moved back to Paris, then died of tuberculosis within
    a year afterwards when he was only 27.

    Poetry
     Like Verlaine, he was drawn to vers impairs and lyricism in general.
     Obsessed with notions of death, loneliness, and ennui
     One of the most well-known forgers of vers libre, where lines vary in length according to the
    feeling of the poem, stanzas are generally replaced by complete sentences, and rhymes are
    optional
     He is considered a Symbolist poet, but his works went on to influence the Surrealists
     His poetry is characterized by
    o Bitter irony–particularly towards women
    o Lyricism and vers impairs similar to Verlaine
    o Experimentation and invention of new words similar to Rimbaud
    o Expressions of loneliness and ennui as well as an obsession with death

    Source:
    Burnshaw, Stanley. The Poem Itself. Fayetteville, University of Arkansas Press, 1995.

    “Jules Laforgue.” Encylopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.


    https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jules-Laforgue. Date Accessed 15 February 2020.
    Jules Laforgue
    Complainte sur certains ennuis
     « Un couchant des Cosmogonies! » is a succinct summary of the poem’s message. A
    cosmogony is a story of the creation of Earth and how it came to be in a beautiful and
    ordered state. The sun is setting on these cosmogonies for Laforgue because his fundamental
    misunderstanding of the opposite sex is inconsistent with any explanation of why men and
    women couple together. Later on, he wonders « par quels gâchi suresthétiques » he is
    attracted to women while being so disdainful of them at the same time.
     Laforgue’s use of capitalization in this poem is unique. « Cosmogonies », « Vie »,
    « Silence » all begin with a capital and seem to indicate major players in Laforgue’s
    perception of the world. If he were a philosopher, these would be the keywords he would
    define to build the foundation of his theory. They also stick out in stark contrast to
    « suresthétique » which is left un-capitalized despite playing placeholder for God, or Mother
    Nature, or some other divine authority who would create a world where men are drawn to
    women. Additionally, the absent-minded maiden screams that her lost ring is « un souvenir
    D’AMOUR ». Laforgue is clearly mocking her sentiment, overemphasizing what he seems to
    think is an abuse of the word.

    Jules Laforgue
    Locutions des Pierrots
     Pierrot as a character underwent many reimaginings throughout the 19th and early 20th
    century. For the symbolists, he was seen as a relatable, persecuted artist who was unfairly
    overlooked by his love interest. Laforgue’s rejection on the basis of being a poet without
    principles stokes the association.
     I think these poems are hilarious and very sad. The bitterness ventures far into the ridiculous,
    and his sense of entitlement is off-putting if I think too hard about it. He rightly holds poetry
    in high regard, so the irony of his attraction to every women who ridicules poets is tragically
    humorous.
     « Avec un monsieur / Ce qu’il y a de mieux / Mais pauvre en génie » goes beyond the
    average playground insult. I would not have wanted to get on Laforgue’s bad side.
    Jules Laforgue
    Locutions des Pierrots (XVI)
     Here we see a more cynical and artistic interpretation of the character Pierrot. This Pierrot is
    less concerned with his unrequited love for Harlequin and instead sadly and sarcastically
    meditates on his dreams of being an artist. I appreciate the comedic aspects of these poems
    because I can’t really draw the line on which points Laforgue takes seriously and which he
    ridicules. Is he crestfallen by the seeming endless « ronds dans les bassins » in pursuit of
    some noble end of poetry, or is simply blowing raspberries to the poets who have come
    before him? In all of this, is he differentiating himself from the other arrogant, blasphemous
    poets, or is he acknowledging his own role in the poetic tradition?
     I can see the precursor to the vers libre in these shorter poems. The mechanics of the poem
    are more conversational than anything introduced so far. The dash in line 7, the interjection
    and affirmation of line 9, and the rhetorical questions in the last stanza form the idea that
    Laforgue is speaking out loud to himself. It is almost theatrical and gives greater justification
    to the title’s indication that these are the locutions of Pierrot.

    Jules Laforgue
    Pierrots (On a des Principes)
     Once again the versification of the poem is clearly a stepping stone to vers libre.
    Interjections, exclamations, questions, enjambments, and the dense punctuation throughout
    the poem place greater emphasis on the complete idea of the speaker rather than line or
    stanza.
     Laforgue’s comedy is at play in each response to the feminine speaker. In the first stanza, he
    mocks the bourgeois woman for her misunderstanding of art and her recently-acquired
    fortune that has not made her rich in culture or mind. In the second, he makes fun of her lack
    of confidence as evidence of a wasted education.
    o Following this lighter banter, Laforgue unexpectedly kills her off in a great betrayal
    of expectations and indulgently rewards himself for it. He mocks the religious
    sentiment of the bourgeois by declaring that she will be resurrected in three days, but
    not truly.
    o This poor excuse for the feminine ideal will only exist as hints in the pleasures of
    women around him. Men, including Laforgue, have no choice but to chase after each
    poor reflection of the ultimate comfort of women.
     The structure of the poem is interesting. The mix of alexandrine and octosyllabic lines flows
    better than I would have assumed. The line at the end of each stanza is the strongest,
    delivering the most powerful irony against both the female speaker and poet. The reduction
    in syllables allows for a pithy punch of sarcasm that would have to be stretched out over a
    longer line in a more traditional form.
     By introducing, mocking, killing off, then acknowledging his own pursuit of mere glimpses
    of this woman, Laforgue simultaneously affirms his principles as a poetic genius and the
    Pierrot-like clownishness of his pursuits.

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