Paul VERLAINE - Signed autograph poem

Autograph poem signed "Elegies" XI. S.l.n.d. (Paris, August, 1892); 1 page in-8 ° on paper of public assistance glued on tab.

Beautiful poem from the collection Elegies, where we find, like saturnian poems, the praise of nature. Verlaine tells us the life of a wave, impetuous as love, referring here to his stormy relationship with Philomène Boudin. Some corrections and additions.

"Elegies XI

Bah! (It's not up to you to speak, ma'am),
After all, let's walk by the wave,
She is gentle, she is strong, she smells of the sea,
Her breath is salty with a bitter taste,
She is round and nervous, she sings, she scolds,
And it's a kind vehicle on the world,
Its transparency also forms a living mirror,
Reflecting the sky and its moving aspect,
The breeze caresses her and whispers her.
Hope, regret or wish, the wing of the seagull
Flies around and, grey at night, is pink during the day.
Like certainty or doubt in love ...
Let us walk by her (nothing, my dear, concerning you) as long as it is still light
And clear and measured in a fair ebb.
Do not wait, great gods! that it will be nevermore
That, under the hurricane, she breaks out furious and nasty and troubles Hecate
Fatidic and mocking in the clouds
Like a woman wronged
Who revolts and becomes worse than nature,
Storm of anger and swirl of insult!
Ah! woe to the one caught in this dreadful pot
In the dark
(Here, my dear, how charming now!)

Paul Verlaine "

Elegies is a collection composed of twelve poems telling the joys and especially the sadness of love, started in August 1892 and published by the publisher Leon Vanier in May 1893.