The 4 cursed poets: who are they and why are they called that?

In 1884, the poet Paul Verlaine published a book called the cursed poets. It compiles the stories of six poets, most of whom Verlaine knew personally: Tristan Corbière, Arthur Rimbaud, Stéphane Mallarmé, Marceline Desbordes-Valmore, Auguste Villiers de L'Isle-Adam and, finally, a Pauvre Lelian (Poor Lelian), a mysterious writer that nobody knew and who was nothing more than an anagram of Paul Verlaine himself. In other words, the compiler of the "cursed poets" included himself in the book.

But why "cursed"? What requirements were needed to access this list? In this article we collect the biographies of some of the most important "cursed poets".

What are the "cursed poets"?

The criteria according to which a poet can be considered "cursed" have been discussed over and over again by scholars of literature. What led Verlaine to include these poets and not others in his famous list?

In principle, the author based himself on the misunderstanding aroused among his contemporaries. Verlaine's intention when writing this book was to publicize the work of these authors, who had had virtually no success on the French literary scene,

partly because of his stormy life, partly because of the nature of his creation, which was not always welcome.

Despite the fact that, at first, the name "damned" fell on the six names mentioned above, the "canonical" list of poets cursed was extended and, currently, Verlaine's primitive list includes other poets such as Edgar Allan Poe, William Blake, Charles Bukoswki, Baudelaire (known as the great "father of modern poetry") and even Spanish authors such as Federico García lorca.

The list is long and infinite, since more names are added to it. However, in this article we will focus on the biographies of the 4 most important "cursed poets".

1. Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867), the damned among the damned

Our distinguished list could not start with another, since Verlaine himself was inspired by one of his poems to find the nickname "cursed poet". The poem in question the first of the controversy, The flowers of Evil (1857), begins like this:

When, by a decree of the Supreme Powers,

The Poet appears in this jaded world,

His mother scared and full of blasphemies

He clenches his fists at God, who takes pity on her:

—"Oh! not having given birth to a whole knot of vipers,

Rather than nurse this ridicule!

Cursed be the night of ephemeral pleasures

In which my womb conceived my expiation!

The Poet is born, and he carries with him the curse that will condemn him (paradoxically, the poem is called Blessing...).

But who was Charles Baudelaire? He has been called the "father of modern poetry", and rightly so. Baudelaire moves away from the prevailing style of the 19th century, still heir to an outdated Romanticism, and opens completely to the "poetry of sensations". Baudelaire's work is full of images, of unconnected thoughts that, ultimately, will powerfully influence future surrealism.

Charles Baudelaire is included in the list of "cursed poets", first, because his work shook the bourgeois society of 19th-century France in an unprecedented way (his collection of poems The flowers of Evil he was the victim of censorship and public ridicule, and he himself was prosecuted for "offending morality"); and, second, because his lifestyle and his work perfectly represented the poet rejected by society, who surrenders to the debauchery (in the form of prostitution, alcohol and drugs) to mitigate the tedium of being away from the beauty that so much yearns.

The city, for Baudelaire, is the stage where the human being brutalizes and annihilates himself., is the voracious monster that, like Cronos, devours his children. In it, the artist feels the "spleen", the word used at the time to describe tedium, weariness, boredom. To mitigate this "spleen" (picked up by Baudelaire in his work El spleen de Paris) the poet tries to elevate himself through toxic substances and living on the edge.

Baudelaire had a very close relationship with his mother and a very difficult one with his stepfather, to the point that many authors they believe that his later rebellion was, in part, the result of animosity caused by his mother's second military husband adored. The poet presents a complex psychological picture (with a possible Oedipus syndrome included) that was exacerbated by the consumption of alcohol, laudanum and hashish.

During his youth he frequented the Latin Quarter of Paris, where he became friends with the great intellectuals of the day (among them, the Balzac himself), and he frequented brothels, where he contracted syphilis that would drag down his entire life and possibly further aggravated his condition mental. He had many lovers, but it was Jeanne Duval, a lowlife actress, who occupied his heart the longest. Their relationship lasted no less than 14 years, during which they were mocked by Parisian society for being an interracial couple (Jeanne was a mulatto, of Haitian origin). The young woman inspired many of Baudelaire's poems and succumbed to the same venereal disease that eventually took the poet in 1867.

• Related article: "The 8 branches of the Humanities (and what each of them studies)"

2. Arthur Rimabud (1854-1891), the precocious poet

Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud stopped writing at the age of 20. All his literary production, which includes him among the great poets of French symbolism, is dated from his early adolescence and his very first youth. Gifted, extremely intelligent, but watched over by a strict and rigid widowed mother, young Arthur soon finds himself suffocated between responsibility and his desire for freedom; especially, of intellectual and creative freedom. At only 15 years old, he escaped twice from maternal surveillance, but was discovered and forced to return.

In a similar way to Baudelaire, it is interesting to trace the psychological profile of this boy, intelligent, sensitive, eager to see the world, who lives in the grip of the control of an always attentive mother, always ready to lock him up within the walls of his house. This did not prevent, however, that Arthur brought to light his first poems.

In 1871 he arrived in Paris and settled in the home of Paul Verlaine, also a poet, and his wife. At only 17 years old, and perhaps finally feeling free from maternal ties, Rimbaud begins to play with life he dissolutes from the Parisian bohemia (this life that all the "damned" led) and spends the nights between absinthe and hashish. He acquires a reputation as an enfant terrible and scandalizes the very respectable Parisian society, to the point that he must return to Charleville, his hometown. He again with his mother.

He did not end his relationship with Verlaine here, who had welcomed him into his house in Paris. A few months later, the young Rimbaud began a love affair with the mature poet. Verlaine leaves his wife pregnant with him and moves with Arthur to London, where they barely survive by teaching French.. Their relationship is stormy and violent; Verlaine is alcoholic and, when he drinks to excess, he becomes angry and dangerous.

One night, while they were already installed in Brussels (London society, even more puritanical than French society, was scandalized by his relationship), Verlaine shot his lover twice. The first shot hits Rimbaud in the wrist; the second bounces off the wall. Verlaine is drunk, tremendously drunk, and Rimbaud is afraid. When, later, Verlaine reloads the pistol at him, the young man decides to run away and denounce him, which causes Verlaine to end up in jail; not only for attempted murder, but also for "corruption of minors". Let's remember that homosexuality was criminalized and that Rimbaud was only 19 years old.

The former lovers would only see each other one more time, in 1875. The relationship is over. During Verlaine's prison term, Arthur has written a play, A Season in Hell, a colossal prose poem in which he describes his stormy relationship with Verlaine. illuminations (1874) would be his last work. Arthur Rimbaud would not write again. Between his dedications from then on, there is the unscrupulous arms dealer. His honored status in universal poetry is due exclusively to what he wrote before he was 20 years old, his only literary testament to him. Undoubtedly, an extraordinary "cursed poet".

• You may be interested in: "What are the 7 Fine Arts?"

3. Paul Verlaine (1844-1896), the collector of "damned"

Is he Pauvre Lelian that he appears as the last of the poets in his compilation. Verlaine included himself, then, in his list, as one more “cursed poet”. Did he have reason to?

We have already discussed how he shot his young lover, Arthur Rimbaud, and what his excesses with alcohol were. His sanguine character was inflamed by drink, to the point of mistreatment.. Verlaine appears to have mistreated both his mother and his wife, Mathilde, whom he abandoned in 1871 for the young poet. So far, we see enough reasons to include it in the list...

While in jail, where he was serving a sentence for two crimes (one, the attempted murder of Rimbaud; two, for “corruption of minors”) he passionately converted to Catholicism. Verlaine is the clear example of a poet who frantically seeks redemption and who only finds excesses, visions and madness along the way.

Literally, Paul Verlaine is one of the great French symbolists. He collaborated in his youth with the Parnassians, one of the first aesthetic movements that took his name from the Greek Parnassus; from this early period are his saturnian poems (1866). He enjoyed a certain name during his lifetime (in 1894 he was named "Prince of Poets" and awarded a pension), but in his last years he finds himself almost destitute and his work barely gives him enough to eat. His wife Mathilde has abandoned him; so has his lover Arthur Rimbaud. Verlaine is lonely and sick.

In 1896, pneumonia took him to the other world, at only 51 years old. The Parisians who attend his funeral tell of a strange event: when his coffin passed through the Opera, the statue representing Poetry lost an arm, which fell to the ground along with the lyre that held. Verlaine, "cursed" poet until after death...

4. Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), the teacher of teachers

He is not included in Paul Verlaine's list, but all the poets on it were influenced in one way or another by the genius of the United States. Poe is the teacher of teachers; the one who laid the foundations of the gothic tale, above all, but also one of the first to go down to posterity as a "cursed poet" by the vox populi. Charles Baudelaire himself translated his work into French, and was particularly fascinated by his tale. the black cat. The dark air of his creations, the diabolical aura of many of them, can be traced without a doubt in The flowers of Evil.

Edgar Allan Poe was born as Edgar Poe alone, but the untimely death of his parents left him in the hands of a wealthy Southern American family, the Allans, who had no children of their own. And here we find, once again, one of the recurring patterns in the life of the "cursed poets": the loving mother and the absent or castrating father. Because although Mrs. Allan loved and treated Edgar as if he were her own, the same did not happen with her husband, who always saw the boy more as the whim of a barren woman than as a true son.

In fact, Mr. Allan never legally adopted the young man and was always tyrannical and hostile towards him.

It is evident that, After Mrs. Allan passed away, Edgar was deprived of a very important role model in his life.. Reserved, taciturn, always in need of affection, he soon found his only surviving blood relatives, Mrs. Clemm and her daughter Virginia by hers. This is one of the darkest episodes in Poe's life and one that has caused the most rivers of ink to flow: his marriage to this 13-year-old girl, when he was almost 30. Disturbing, to say the least.

Poe was always very clear about his vocation as a poet, but the difficulties of making a living from poetry led him towards journalism.. And despite the fact that he was a great writer (all the newspapers in which he collaborated automatically increased the number of subscribers) he always lived precariously, on the brink of poverty. The family lived in a miserable cabin on the outskirts of New York, cold and inhospitable, and Mrs. Clemm was forced to leave, at sunset, to look for food in the surrounding orchards.

Poe's alcoholism worsened when Virginia fell ill with tuberculosis. At the death of the young woman, at just 23 years old, Poe fell into a deep depression from which it would hardly come out. He died two years after Virginia, in strange circumstances that have only increased his reputation as "damned." They found him in an alleyway in the city of Baltimore, wearing clothes that were not his and the victim, it was said, of a colossal delirium tremens. Poe died a few hours later at the hospital. She was only 40 years old.