Editing Albert Samain (section)

==Life and works==
Born in [[Lille]], his family were [[Flemish people|Flemish]] and had long lived in the town or its suburbs. At the time of the poet's birth, his father, Jean-Baptiste Samain, and his mother, Elisa-Henriette Mouquet, conducted a business in "wines and spirits" at 75 rue de Paris.<ref>Six French Poets: Studies in Contemporary Literature. Amy Lowell. New York: Macmillan Company, 1915.</ref> Samain's father died when he was quite young; it was necessary for him to leave school and seek a trade. He moved to [[Paris]] in around 1880, where his poetry won him a following and he began mixing with [[avant-garde]] [[literary society]], and began publicly reciting his poems at ''[[Le Chat Noir]]''.  His poems were strongly influenced by those of [[Charles Baudelaire|Baudelaire]], and began to strike a somewhat morbid and [[elegy|elegiac]] tone.  He also was influenced by [[Paul Verlaine|Verlaine]]; his works disclose a taste for indecisive, vague imagery.  Samain helped found the ''[[Mercure de France]]'', and also worked on the ''[[Revue des Deux Mondes]]''.

Samain published three volumes of verse: ''Au Jardin de l'Infante'' (1893), which made him famous; ''Aux flancs du vase'' (1898) and ''Le Chariot d'or'' (1901). His poetic drama ''[[Polyphème]]'' was set to music by [[Jean Cras]]. Samain died of [[tuberculosis]].