Editing Albert Samain

{{Short description|French poet (1858–1900)}}
[[File:Albert Samain, portrait.jpg|thumb|150px|Albert Samain]]
{{French literature sidebar}}
'''Albert Victor Samain''' (3 April 1858{{snd}}18 August 1900) was a [[French language|French]] poet and writer of the [[Symbolism (movement)|Symbolist]] school.

==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]].

==Musical settings==
Many composers set Samain's poetry to music, including [[Lili Boulanger]], [[Nadia Boulanger]], [[Alfredo Casella]], [[Édouard Devernay]], [[George Enescu]], [[Gabriel Fauré]], [[Swan Hennessy]], [[Charles Koechlin]], [[Jacques Leguerney]], [[Adela Maddison]], [[Georges Migot]], [[Paul Paray]], [[Ottorino Respighi]], [[Adrien Rougier]], [[Camille Saint-Saëns]], [[Alice Sauvrezis]], [[Marcelle Soulage]], and others.

==Quotation==
[[Image:Albert Samain.jpg|thumb|200px|Portrait d'Albert Samain<br>par [[Félix Vallotton]] (1896).]]
{{Wikisourcelang|fr|Albert Samain}}

:Je rêve de vers doux et d'intimes ramages,
:De vers à frôler l'âme ainsi que des plumages,

:De vers blonds où le sens fluide se délie
:Comme sous l'eau la chevelure d'Ophélie,

:De vers silencieux, et sans rythme et sans trame
:Où la rime sans bruit glisse comme une rame,

:De vers d'une ancienne étoffe, exténuée,
:Impalpable comme le son et la nuée,

:De vers de soir d'automne ensorcelant les heures
:Au rite féminin des syllabes mineures.

:De vers de soirs d'amour énervés de verveine,
:Où l'âme sente, exquise, une caresse à peine...

:Je rêve de vers doux mourant comme des roses.

:::::--''Au Jardin de l'Infante''

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Albert Samain}}
* {{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Samain, Albert Victor | volume= 24 |last= Gosse |first= Edmund William |author-link= Edmund Gosse | pages = 106&ndash;107 |short= 1}}
* [http://www.blackcatpoems.com/s/albert_samain.html Poems by Albert Samain] English translations of Samain's poetry
* Poems by Albert Samain (in French): https://web.archive.org/web/20030219105826/http://poesie.webnet.fr/auteurs/samain.html
* [http://genealogie.samain.name SAMAIN Genealogy website]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Samain, Albert}}
[[Category:1858 births]]
[[Category:1900 deaths]]
[[Category:Writers from Lille]]
[[Category:19th-century deaths from tuberculosis]]
[[Category:Symbolist poets]]
[[Category:French male poets]]
[[Category:19th-century French poets]]
[[Category:19th-century French male writers]]
[[Category:Tuberculosis deaths in France]]