Villon et Verlaine

This text reproduces the lecture given by Valéry at the Université des Annales on 12 January 1937.

Valéry begins from a comparison that had become almost traditional between François Villon and Paul Verlaine: two great poets readily classed among the “bad boys” of poetry, equally familiar with churches and taverns, with learned and popular language, and whose work was nourished by prison. But this biographical symmetry serves chiefly to set two moments of French poetry against each other: Villon and Verlaine.

The essay holds a lasting place in Valéry’s critical work: it was later reprinted in his Œuvres, among the Études littéraires of Variété.

Karaïskakis-Chapon, Bibliographie des œuvres de Paul Valéry, no. 280.