Gustave Kahn

Gustave Kahn

Gustave Kahn (21 December 1859, in Metz – 5 September 1936, in Paris) was a French Symbolist poet and art critic.

Personal life

Kahn was a Jew from Lorraine. He chose sides with Émile Zola in the Dreyfus affair. His wife Elizabeth converted to Judaism as a protest against anti-semitism, changing her name to Rachel.

Poetry

He claimed to have invented the term vers libre, or free verse;[1] he was in any case one of the first European exponents of the form. His principal publications include Les Palais nomades, 1887, Domaine de fée, 1895, and Le Livre d'images, 1897. Kahn also made a valuable contribution to the history of the movement with his book Symbolistes et décadents, 1902.

Other work

In addition to his poems, Kahn was a public intellectual who wrote novels, plays, and literary criticism. He played a key role in a number of periodicals, including La Vogue, La Revue Indépendante, La Revue Blanche and Le Mercure de France. He was also an art critic and collector who stayed current with developments in painting and sculpture until his death. He also played a role in a number of debates on public issues, including anarchism, feminism, socialism, and Zionism. In the 1920s he was (head)editor of Menorah, a Jewish bimonthly magazine which folded in 1933.

Several of his poems were set to music by the composer Charles Loeffler.

After his death, his manuscripts were placed in the collection of the library of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Quotation

Les Paons
Se penchant vers les dahlias,
Des paons cabraient des rosaces lunaires,
L'assouplissement des branches vénère
Son pâle visage aux mourants dahlias.
Elle écoute au loin les brèves musiques
Nuit claire aux ramures d'accords,
Et la lassitude a bercé son corps
Au rythme odorant des pures musiques.
Les paons ont dressé la rampe ocellée
Pour la descente de ses yeux vers le tapis
De choses et de sens
Qui va vers l'horizon, parure vermiculée
De son corps alangui.
En l'âme se tapit
le flou désir molli de récits et d'encens.

Principal works

Gustave Kahn

References

  1. ↑ Lucie-Smith, Edward. (1972) Symbolist Art. London: Thames & Hudson, p. 58. ISBN 0500201250
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