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
voice heavy perfume
I detest heavy perfume and shrill voices.
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.
men what-matters doubt
What matters to us, the judgment of men? What have we to doubt, since we are pure before life?