SOURCE: "The Poetry of Jules Laforgue," in Scrutiny: A Quarterly Review, Vol. V, No. 2, September, 1936, pp. 128-49.

In the following essay, Turnell addresses many of the issues central to early-twentieth-century Laforgue studies: Baudelaire's influence on the poet's development; the poet's artistic immaturity at the time of his death; his stylistic relationship to Romanticism and Classicism; and his contribution to the creation of vers libre.

The influence of Laforgue on modern poetry has been decisive. In the ordinary way it is a mistake to distinguish too sharply between the influence of a writer's outlook and the influence of his style or, as I should prefer to call it, his method. In the case of Laforgue, however, some sort of distinction between the two is necessary. I think the point can be illustrated by a comparison between Mr. Pound and Mr. Eliot. It seems to me that Laforgue's influence on...