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Which subjects appear in Paul Verlaine’s Romances sans paroles?
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Paul Verlaine
Paul Verlaine, detail from Un Coin de table, oil painting by Henri Fantin-Latour, 1872; in the Louvre, Paris.
In the collection Romances sans paroles (1874), the primary subjects explored by Paul Verlaine are landscape, regret, and vituperation directed at his estranged wife.1
Written during his travels with Arthur Rimbaud, these poems are noted for their "impressionist" quality and their embodiment of some of the poet's most advanced prosodic experiments, achieving a level of musicality that is considered rare in French literature.1