SOURCE: “The Summing-Up,” in Paul Verlaine, Twayne Publishers, Inc., 1971, pp. 117–22.

In the following essay, Carter provides an overview of Verlaine's poetic life.

A short life, less than fifty-two years; yet its output was considerable. From Poèmes saturniens until his death, Verlaine averaged one volume of poetry every eighteen months, plus a fair quantity of prose. Only the most prolific giants like Hugo have done better. What is its value?

Like all literary work, it must be judged by a double standard: what it meant to its age and what it means nowadays. Verlaine's contemporaries thought of him as an innovator: he had added new techniques to poetry and helped free it from traditional rules. Critics of the period were forever stressing this point. Their articles almost give the impression that before Verlaine verse was so fettered with regulations that little of any value was written.¹ Yet his...