Renee Vivien
Renee Vivien
Renée Vivien, born Pauline Mary Tarn, was a British poet who wrote in French, in the style of the Symbolistes and the Parnassiens. A high-profile lesbian in the Paris of the Belle Époque, she was as notable for her lifestyle as for her work, which has received more attention following a recent revival of interest in Sapphic verse. Many of her poems are autobiographical, reflecting a life of extreme hedonism, leading to early death. She was the subject of a...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth11 June 1877
age chosen companion gives hand maiden man searches weakness whom
I am at the age when a maiden gives her hand to the man whom her weakness searches and dreads, and I have not chosen a companion for the road.
mediocre cunning bits
I am a mediocre being, a bit cunning.
masculine ugliness
I have no right to beauty. I had been condemned to masculine ugliness.
love believe way
There are fewer ways of making love than they say, and more than one believes.
voice heavy perfume
I detest heavy perfume and shrill voices.
men what-matters doubt
What matters to us, the judgment of men? What have we to doubt, since we are pure before life?