‖ poète maudit
(pɔɛt modi)
[Fr., = cursed poet.]
A poet who is insufficiently appreciated by his contemporaries. Also transf.
| [1884 P. Verlaine (title) Les poètes maudits.] 1930 L. P. Shanks Baudelaire p. vii, Certainly Baudelaire was a poète maudit, pursued by the disaster which pursued his fellow-poet Edgar Poe. 1949 M. Turnell tr. J.-P. Sartre's Baudelaire 155 The proud free criminal, the Don Juan of hell, the rebel was also at the same time the poète maudit, the Devil's marionette. 1958 Listener 17 July 98/2 A poète maudit is doubly accursed when he exhibits himself and his world with the dry precision of classical prosody. 1963 Times 8 Feb. 14/1 It is a loosely assembled collection of episodes,..following the self-destructive career of a late romantic hero—drunkard, sexual athlete and poète maudit. 1977 Time 26 Dec. 52/1 Once the ignored art, photography now stands robed in puffery, and armored with analysis; like painting, it has acquired its cast of heroes and poètes maudits. |