| Francis Vielé-Griffin | |
| Birth Date: | 1864 5, df=yes |
| Birth Place: | Norfolk, Virginia, US |
| Death Place: | Bergerac |
| Occupation: | Poet |
| Genre: | Symbolist |
Francis Vielé-Griffin (pseudonym of Egbert Ludovicus Viélé, 26 May 186412 November 1937), was a French symbolist poet. He was born at Norfolk, Virginia, USA, the son of General Egbert Ludovicus Viele, and moved to France with his mother (the former Teresa Griffin) in 1872.[1]
Vielé-Griffin was educated in France and divided his time between Paris and Touraine. He was a writer of vers libre and founded the highly influential journal Entretiens politiques et littéraires (1890–92).He wrote symbolist and vers-libre poetry. His first collection, Cueille d'avril, appeared in 1885. He practiced a relaxed prosody, which did not take into account the obligatory alternation of masculine and feminine rhymes, the prohibition to rhyme a plural with a singular, replaces the rhyme with an assonance, if not neglected here and there the rhyme or assonancer:
French: Ne croyez pas
French: Pour ce qu'avril rit rose
French: Dans les vergers
French: Ou palit de l'exces voluptueux des fleurs
French: Que toutes choses
French: Sont selon nos gais coeurs
French: Et qu'il n'est plus une soif a etancher.
His work includes:
From “Euphonies” in Cull of April:[2]
French: I ramble on return from vain lassitudes,
French: Have we not dreamt of other beatitudes?
From "Dea" in Cull of April:[2]
French: The rhythm of her voice is my only metric,
French: And her alternating pace my nuanced rhyme,
French: My idea is what I read in her thoughts,
French: Of course, and Iʼve never dreamt of other America
French: Than to kiss the fiery gold of her lowered head.