Albert Samain

Albert Victor Samain (April 3, 1858 &mdash; August 18, 1900) was a French poet and writer of the Symbolist school.

Born in Lille, Samain's father died when he was quite young; it was necessary for him to leave school and seek a trade. He moved to Paris in around 1880, where his poetry won him a following and he began mixing with avant-garde literary society, and began publicly reciting his poems at Le Chat Noir. His poems were strongly influenced by those of Baudelaire, and began to strike a somewhat morbid and elegiac tone. He also was influenced by Verlaine; his works disclose a taste for indecisive, vague imagery. Samain helped found the Mercure de France, and also worked on the Revue des Deux Mondes.

Samain published three volumes of verse: Le jardin de l'infante (1893), which made him famous; Aux flancs du vase (1898) and Le Chariot d'or (1901). Samain died of tuberculosis.

Quotation

 * Je rêve de vers doux et d'intimes ramages,
 * De vers à frôler l'âme ainsi que des plumages,


 * De vers blonds où le sens fluide se délie
 * Comme sous l'eau la chevelure d'Ophélie,


 * De vers silencieux, et sans rythme et sans trame
 * Où la rime sans bruit glisse comme une rame,


 * De vers d'une ancienne étoffe, exténuée,
 * Impalpable comme le son et la nuée,


 * De vers de soir d'automne ensorcelant les heures
 * Au rite féminin des syllabes mineures.


 * De vers de soirs d'amour énervéls de verveine,
 * Où l'âme sente, exquise, une caresse à peine...


 * Je rêve de vers doux mourant comme des roses.


 * --Le jardin de l'infante

External link
Poems by Albert Samain (in French): http://poesie.webnet.fr/auteurs/samain.html

Albert Samain Albert Samain