Tristan Corbière
Tristan Corbière, born Édouard-Joachim Corbière, was a French poet known for his unique style and the eventual posthumous recognition of his work. The son of a notable political satirist and writer, Corbière spent much of his life in Brittany, where his connection to the sea deeply influenced his poetry. His schooling was cut short due to health issues, leading him to embrace a solitary lifestyle marked by eccentricity; he was known for his distinctive appearance, which included shaving his head and eyebrows. Although he struggled with obscurity during his lifetime, his inclusion in Paul Verlaine's collection of "poètes maudits" in 1884 helped cement his status as a significant literary figure. Today, Corbière is celebrated for his realistic and colloquial style, as well as his innovative blending of folklore and sophisticated elements in poetry. His work has left a lasting impact on subsequent generations of poets, including T. S. Eliot, who drew inspiration from Corbière’s unique approach to symbolism and expression.
On this Page
Subject Terms
Tristan Corbière
French poet
- Born: July 18, 1845
- Died: March 1, 1875
Biography
Tristan Corbière (kawr-byehr) was the son of Jean Antoine Rene Édouard Corbière, a famous political satirist, journalist, publisher, and writer of sea stories, among them the well-known “Le Négrier” (1832), who was also active as a businessman at Morlaix, the town near the family home in Brittany. Born Édouard-Joachim Corbière, the poet adopted the first name Tristan, but no one knows exactly why or when he did this.
Young Corbière attended school at Morlaix and, later, at Sainte-Brieuc and Nantes. By his sixteenth year, he was forced to leave school because of illness, apparently a combination of rheumatism and heart problems. Except for brief periods spent in southern France and Italy, the poet remained in Brittany, near the sea he loved. His fellow Bretons called him a specter of death and considered him an eccentric. He accentuated the oddity of his appearance by shaving his head of all hair, including his eyebrows. His only joys seem to have been writing, drinking, and sailing his boat, Le Négrier (named after his father’s story).
Corbière died almost unknown as a poet, shortly before his thirtieth birthday. His fame began only when Paul Verlaine included him in his series of poètes maudits, or “accursed poets,” in 1884. In his own epitaph, Corbière described himself as “philosopher, stray, stillborn.” Yet in the twentieth century Corbière came to be regarded as a great French poet and as an important influence on later French and English poets, including T. S. Eliot, especially in his realism and colloquialism and in his use of symbols. Like later poets, too, Corbière used combinations of folklore and sophisticated elements in unusual combinations.
Bibliography
Lehmann, A. G. The Symbolist Aesthetic in France, 1885-1895. 2d ed. Folcroft, Pa.: Folcroft Library Editions, 1974.
Mitchell, Robert L. Corbière, Mallarmé, Valéry: Preservations and Commentary. Saratoga, Calif.: Anma Libri, 1981.
Mitchell, Robert L. Tristan Corbière. Boston: Twayne, 1979.
Quennell, Peter. Baudelaire and the Symbolists. 2d rev. ed. Freeport, N.Y.: Books for Libraries Press, 1971.
Smith, Grover. “Tourneur and Little Gidding; Corbière and East Coker.” Modern Language Notes 65 (1950).
Sonnenfeld, Albert. Tristan Corbière and the Moral Structure of “Les Amours jaunes.” Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microfilms, 1969.
Starkie, Enid. From Gautier to Eliot: The Influence of France on English Literature, 1851-1939. 1960. Reprint. St. Clair Shores, Mich.: Scholarly Press, 1971.
Widmer, Kingsley. The Literary Rebel. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1965.