Visual and Spatial Imagery in Verlaine's Fêtes galantes

Abstract

The poems of Fêtes galantes by Paul Verlaine have marked visual and musical aspects with which criticism often deals by comparing the subject matter and style of the poems with those of paintings by Watteau and music by Debussy. It is more rewarding to study similarities of basic artistic form in these works about the Rococo dream world; in particular, the visual and spatial imagery shared by Verlaine and Watteau helps elucidate Fêtes galantes.The vague, ambiguous, and shifting impressions sought by Verlaine are created visually by Watteau as the latter varies sharp delineation with hazy blending. The paintings tend to have either detached foreground figures or a merging of figures into a misty background. Verlaine uses these effects of detachment and merging in virtual space, verbally rendered, and coordinates them with the recurrent themes of his suite of poems. A visualized pattern along a time line results as he shifts from one effect to the other in individual works and in the total composition. Much of the musicality of the work is thus produced through visual and spatial imagery in sequence. Increased understanding of Ver-laine's creation of artistic form suggests the need for study of the relationships between this form and the contents of the poems.