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You must let your poems ride their luck
On the back of the sharp morning air
Touched with the fragrance of mint and thyme…
And everything else is LIT-RIT-CHER.

— Paul Verlaine Art poétique", from Jadis et naguère (1884)

Que ton vers soit la bonne aventure
Éparse au vent crispé du matin
Qui va fleurant la menthe et le thym…
Et tout le reste est littérature.

Original text (French)

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More quotes by Paul Verlaine

By far the worst pain
Is not to understand
Why without love or hate
My heart's full of pain.

What have you done, you standing there
In floods of tears?
Tell me what you have done
With your young life?

Falling tears in my heart,
Falling rain on the town.
Why this long ache,
A knife in my heart.

The long sobs of
The violins
Of autumn
Lay waste my heart
With monotones
Of boredom.

La lune blanche
Luit dans les bois;
De chaque branche
Part une voix
Sous la ramée.

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Paul Verlaine (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.