PAUL VERLAINE (1844 - 1896) was a leading light of the French Parnassian poets, highly praised for his early collection of verse, Fêtes galantes (1869). In 1872 he deserted Paris, wife and child, and the Parnassians to travel with young poet Arthur Rimbaud on a quest to "renew poetic vision." Use of drugs, alcohol, sex and violence in this pursuit led to gunshots, a prison-term, exile and the end of the two poets' relationship. Throughout this period and over the following two decades of his life, Verlaine wrote many of his finest poems about this turbulent affair.
