Léon-Paul Fargue (, 4 March 187624 November 1947) was a French poet and essayist. He was born in Paris, France, on rue Coquilliére. As a poet he was noted for his poetry of atmosphere and detail. His work spanned numerous literary movements. Before he reached 19 years of age, Fargue had already published in ''L'Art littéraire'' in 1894 and his important poem ''Tancrède'' appeared in the magazine ''Pan'' in 1895. As an opponent of the

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s, he became a member of the Symbolist poetry circle connected with '' Le Mercure de France.'' Rilke, Joyce and others declared that Fargue was at the very forefront of modern poetry. He was also a poet of Paris, and later in his career he published two books about the city, ''D'après Paris'' (1931) and ''Le piéton de Paris'' (1939). His earliest work is divided between Paris prowlings and intimate scenes of childhood and nature. He was a great social lion in the literary scene of Paris in the 1920s and 30s.

Walter Benjamin Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin ( ; ; 15 July 1892 – 26 September 1940) was a German-Jewish philosopher, cultural critic, media theorist, and essayist. An eclectic thinker who combined elements of German idealism, Jewish mysticism, Western M ...

(who called Fargue "the greatest living poet in France") met him on a visit to the city in January 1930, and recounted an evening enlivened by charisma, wit, and incomparable storytelling. Fargue related to Benjamin the story of a dinner he held for

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, his old friend, and

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...

– the only time the two met. "Fargue", wrote Leon-Pierre Quint in November 1929, "is one of those people who write as they speak; he constantly utters works that remain unwritten-perhaps from indolence, perhaps from contempt for writing. An endless sequence of unforced flashes of wit and puns-this was the only way he was capable of speaking. He has a childlike love of Paris, with its godforsaken little cafes, its bars, its streets, and its nightlife that never ends. He must be in robust health and have a highly resilient character. During the day he works as an industrialist, and at night he is always on the move. He is constantly seen with elegant women, Americans. He is close to fifty years of age, yet leads the life of a gigolo by night, hypnotizing everyone he meets with the charm of his speech." Fargue published a book of recollections about his friend, the composer Ravel. He was a member of the

Apaches The Apache ( ) are several Southern Athabaskan language-speaking peoples of the Southwestern United States, Southwest, the Southern Plains and Northern Mexico. They are linguistically related to the Navajo. They migrated from the Athabascan ho ...

and remained a lifelong friend of Ravel. One of his poems, ''Rêves'', was set to music by Ravel in 1927. He died in Paris in 1947 and is buried in the

Cimetière du Montparnasse Montparnasse Cemetery () is a cemetery in the Montparnasse quarter of Paris, in the city's 14th arrondissement. The cemetery is roughly 47 acres and is the second largest cemetery in Paris. The cemetery has over 35,000 graves, and approximately 1 ...

. Federico Mompou dedicated No. 12 of his '' Cançons i Danses'' to Fargue's memory.

Selection of published works

* ''Poèmes'', 1905 * ''Nocturnes'', 1905 * ''Tancrède'', 1911 * ''Pour la musique'', 1912 * ''Ludions'', 1923 See Robert Orledge, Preface to Soundkiosk edition of the Ludions, 2011, p. 8. http://www.soundkiosk.com/pdffiles/Sample%20book%20web%20Vol%203.pdf * ''Banalité'', 1928 * ''Vulturne'', 1928 * ''Épaisseurs'', 1929 * ''Sous la lampe'', 1929 * ''D'après Paris'', 1932 * ''Le Piéton de Paris'', 1939 *
High Solitude
', tr. by Rainer J. Hanshe (Contra Mundum Press, 2024)

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fargue, Leon-Paul 1876 births 1947 deaths Writers from Paris 20th-century French poets Lycée Henri-IV alumni Burials at Montparnasse Cemetery French male poets