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Romances Without Words / In Solitary
I lay my head on your young breast still hammering from our latest kisses. In the calm after that sweet tempest, let me drift off as you drowse.
-Paul Verlaine
The Complete Original Prison Text In Solitary
The First Ever Translation into English of
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POETRY BOOK LAUNCH EVENT Come Hear the Music of Poetry
18 April 2026 6pm - 7pm
Rose City Book Pub
1329 NE Fremont, Portland, OR
Paul Verlaine is the Father of Symbolism and Beckett brings his poems into our modern world while staying true to the original texts.
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Romances Without Words - Poetry as Music
This work explores love and travel where the poems evoke a feeling from the sound of the words, a feeling that is more important than the words’ meaning - a new kind of poetry that’s very edgy even today. Beckett stays true to this aesthetic by focusing on the music Verlaine created, letting meaning go. Verlaine’s original dedication to Rimbaud has been restored.
Brought together in the single volume, these books show the course of Verlaine’s affair with Author Rimbaud, both the positives and the negatives. Romances Without Words is dedicated to Rimbaud and In Solitary moves through the relationship to its end.
In Solitary - Violence to Redemption
Written while in prison for having shot Rimbaud, here Verlaine moves from the intensity of his actions and the resulting imprisonment all the way to seeking redemption through religion. In this work he justifies his book Romances Without Words saying “music above all”. And it contains many of his lyric masterpieces.