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Why did Paul Verlaine later distance himself from the Symbolist movement?
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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.
Paul Verlaine, who was initially associated with the Parnassian group and later became a key figure for the Symbolists, eventually distanced himself from the latter movement.
His primary reason for this disavowal was a fundamental disagreement regarding poetic technique. While the Symbolists sought to move away from traditional structures, Verlaine maintained that certain conventions, such as rhyme, remained an unavoidable necessity in French verse. He felt that the Symbolists went too far in their abandonment of these traditional forms.1