Paul Verlaine

Verlaine, Paul (1844–96), French poet, an early and influential exponent of symbolism. While imprisoned (1873–75) for shooting and wounding his friend and lover, the poet Arthur Rimbaud, he wrote Romances sans Paroles (1874), one of his finest volumes. After a period of religious piety, he returned to his life of bohemian dissipation and died in poverty.