Poète maudit

Insanity, crime, violence, abuse of alcohol or other drugs, and in general any societal sin, often resulting in an early death, are typical elements of the biography of a poète maudit.

The phrase poète maudit (literally, "accursed poet") was coined in the beginning of the 19th century by Alfred de Vigny in his 1832 novel Stello, in which he calls the poet "la race toujours maudite par les puissants de la terre" (the race that will always be cursed by the powerful ones of the earth).

Lautréamont or Alice de Chambrier are also considered as poètes maudits, as is the American 20th-century poet Hart Crane.

Another notable example of poète maudit is Dino Campana, an Italian author famous for his only poetry collection, the Canti Orfici, who died in a psychiatric hospital at the age of forty-six.

The work is a homage to Tristan Corbière, Arthur Rimbaud, Stéphane Mallarmé, Marceline Desbordes-Valmore, Villiers de l'Isle-Adam and Pauvre Lélian (Paul Verlaine himself, the name being an anagram).