Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

ALBERT VICTOR SAMAIN (1858-1900)

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V24, Page 107 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

See also:

ALBERT See also:VICTOR See also:SAMAIN (1858-1900)  , See also:French poet, was See also:born at See also:Lille on the 4th of See also:April 1858 . He was educated at the lycee of that See also:town, and on leaving it entered a See also:bank as a clerk . .He enjoyed no See also:literary associations, and his See also:talent See also:developed slowly in solitude . About 1884 See also:Samain went to See also:Paris, having obtained a clerkship in the Prefecture de la See also:Seine, which he held for most of his See also:life . He presently began to send poems to the Mercure de See also:France, and these attracted See also:attention . In 1893 he allowed a friend to See also:print his earliest See also:volume of poems, Au Jardin de l'inJante, in a very small edition . This led to the sudden recognition of his talent, and to See also:applause from critics of widely different See also:schools . In 1897 this See also:book was reprinted in a more popular See also:form, with the addition of a See also:section entitled L'Urne penchee . Samain's second volume, Aux }lanes du See also:vase, appeared in 1898 . His See also:health began to fail and he withdrew to the See also:country, where he died, in the neighbourhood of the See also:village of See also:Magny-See also:les-Hameaux, on the 18th of See also:August 1900 . A third volume of his poems, Le See also:Chariot d'or, appeared after his See also:death, with a lyrical See also:drama, Polypheme (1901), which was produced at the See also:Theatre de l'cEuvre in 1904 . The fame of Samain rapidly advanced when he was dead, and the See also:general public awakened to the fact that this isolated writer was a poet of rare originality .

He cultivated a delicate, languid beauty of imagery and an exquisite sense of verbal See also:

melody without attempting any revolution in See also:prosody or identifying himself with any theory . Samain had no See also:great range of talent, nor was he ambitious of many effects . Samain's natural life was patiently spent in squalid conditions; he escaped from them into an imaginative See also:world of the most exquisite refinement . He has been compared to See also:Watteau and See also:Schumann; in his own See also:art he See also:bore some resemblance to See also:Charles See also:Baudelaire, and to the See also:English poet See also:Arthur O'Shaughnessy . See also R . See also:Doumic, Trois Poems," in the Revue See also:des deux mondes (Oct . 19o0); L . Bocquet, See also:Albert Samain, sa See also:vie, son teuvre (1905); and E . W . See also:Gosse, French Profiles (1905) . (E .

End of Article: ALBERT VICTOR SAMAIN (1858-1900)
[back]
SALZWEDEL
[next]
SAMANA RANGE

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click and select "copy." Paste it into a website, email, or other HTML document.