Paul Verlaine Poems

High-heels were struggling with a full-length dress
So that, between the wind and the terrain,
At times a shining stocking would be seen,
And gone too soon. We liked that foolishness.
...

With long sobs
the violin-throbs
of autumn wound
my heart with languorous
...

Il pleure dans mon coeur
Comme il pleut sur la ville.
Quelle est cette langueur
Qui pénêtre mon coeur ?
...

Your soul is as a moonlit landscape fair,
Peopled with maskers delicate and dim,
That play on lutes and dance and have an air
...

Your soul is like a painter's landscape where
charming masks in shepherd mummeries
are playing lutes and dancing with an air
of being sad in their fantastic guise.
...

Leaf-strewing gales
Utter low wails
Like violins,--
Till on my soul
...

See, blossoms, branches, fruit, leaves I have brought,
And then my heart that for you only sighs;
...

You were not over-patient with me, dear;
This want of patience one must rightly rate:
You are so young! Youth ever was severe
...

Tears fall in my heart
Rain falls on the town;
what is this numb hurt
that enters my heart?...
...

Hope shines-as in a stable a wisp of straw.
Fear not the wasp drunk with his crazy flight!
Through some chink always, see, the moted light!
...