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by Paul Verlaine (1844 - 1896)

Bibliothèques
Language: French (Français) 
Meuble sublime ou ridicule, ou tous les deux,
Qui, mon goût consulté, serait plutôt modeste
Et de proportions, et de luxe, et du reste,
Salut, Bibliothèque, antre auguste et hideux !

Mais les livres, ici, n’en point parler vaut mieux ;
Le logis, le local, indigent ou céleste,
Seul, nous veut occuper d’un œil profond ou leste,
Et déjà l’examen me convainc d’être vieux :

Car je hais la dorure et la fioriture
Sur l’acajou trop dense ou tels autres bois lourds :
Tout au plus des pattes en cuivre et des chefs d’ours ;

Ou bien du bois de rose aux coins, où se torture
Le rococo de Boulle et celui de Boucher…
Ou des planches au long d’un mur, où tout nicher !

Confirmed with Paul Verlaine, Biblio-Sonnets, Paris, Henri Floury, 1913, pages 25-26. Note: first published in La Revue biblio-iconograhique, December 28, 1895.


Text Authorship:

  • by Paul Verlaine (1844 - 1896), "Bibliothèques", written 1895, appears in Biblio-Sonnets, first published 1895 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

  • by Christophe Arfan (b. 1987), "Bibliothèques", 2014 [ high voice and piano ], from Biblio-Sonnets, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2022-02-06
Line count: 14
Word count: 119

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