Person    | Male  Born 30/3/1844  Died 8/1/1896

Paul Verlaine

Categories: Poetry

Countries: Belgium, France

French poet. Born Metz, France. Has been described as an ugly, homicidal alcoholic. He effectively eloped from his own marriage to live with Rimbaud. Following his imprisonment for attempted murder of Rimbaud in Brussels (see BrusselsRemembers), he was released in January 1875. He returned to Britain, and ended up as a schoolmaster in Stickney, a village near Boston in Lincolnshire. No plaque, apparently, but Verlaine does appear in one of the school photographs. Relied on his mother for support much of his life. Returned to France where he had another homosexual affair. Thereafter mainly lived in Paris, under the shadow of his past scandals. Only late in his life was his poetry valued. Died Paris, aged 51.

Some of this information comes from the Verlaine Soho Mural podcast - worth a listen.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Paul Verlaine

Commemorated ati

Spirit of Soho Mural

Interesting that Coca Cola are specifically mentioned on the panel but not as...

Read More

Verlaine and Rimbaud

Chosen as our featured memorial in July 2004. The decadent relationship lived...

Read More

Verlaine birth

Dans cette maison, le poete Paul Verlaine est ne le 30 Mars 1844. (Translate...

Read More

Other Subjects

Isaac Rosenberg

Isaac Rosenberg

Poet and painter. Born Bristol of Lithuanian parents. A poet of WW1. Critical of the war but enlisted because he needed employment. Killed in the trenches of France.

Person, Art, Poetry, France, Lithuania

2 memorials
Kate Greenaway

Kate Greenaway

Illustrator of children's books and poet. Born 21 Cavendish Street N1 (now entirely post-war blocks of flats). She and her family moved to Upper Street in 1852. She worked for London branch of Marc...

Person, Art, Children, Poetry, Seriously Famous

3 memorials
Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde

Born in Dublin as Oscar Fingal O'Flaherty Wills Wilde. 'Importance of Being Earnest', 'Picture of Dorian Gray', etc. A flamboyant aesthete, he may have been Grossmith's model for the character Bunt...

Person, Gender Issues, Literature, Poetry, Seriously Famous, Theatre, France, Ireland

7 memorials
Gerard Manley Hopkins

Gerard Manley Hopkins

Poet and Jesuit priest. Born 87 The Grove, Stratford, of Welsh ancestry. 1852 the family moved to Hampstead and GMH attended Highgate School where he flourished. At Oxford University he converted ...

Person, Poetry, Religion, Ireland

4 memorials
Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Poet and critic. Born and brought up in Ottery St Mary, Devon. Pupil at Christ's Hospital, 1781-91, where he became friends with Charles Lamb. Died London. Buried in the chapel of Highgate School....

Person, Literature, Poetry, Seriously Famous

5 memorials

Previously viewed

North London Synagogue

North London Synagogue

From JCR-UK: The Ashkenazi Orthodox congregation formed in approximately 1860 and initially met in a room in Upper Street. Then used rooms at Barnsbury Hall, 2-4 Barnsbury Street, until 1868 when t...

Building, Religion

1 memorial
George Bunting

George Bunting

From Orra: “George, an engineer by profession, was an easy-going, pipe smoking and puckish ‘mein host’.  His auburn close-cropped hair and goatee made him instantly recognizable, and his infectious...

Person, Art, Community / Clubs, India

1 memorial
Douglas Alfred Barber

Douglas Alfred Barber

Church warden of St Mary Aldermary, 1989 - 2000. Andrew Behan has kindly provided the following research: Douglas Alfred Barber was born on 31 March 1928 in Romford, Essex, the youngest of the thr...

Person, Politics & Administration

1 memorial
Lopping Hall - High Road

Lopping Hall - High Road

IG10, High Road, 189

Lopping Hall stretches between the High Street and Station Road, where there is a foundation stone. See there for more information about ...

1 creator
Albert Atkins
War dead, WW1
1 memorial