Fluid Temporality and Identity in Verlaine's 'Ariettes oubliées' I, III, VI, VIII, IX

The narrative of disillusionment and the quest for both personal and poetic values permeating Verlaine's 'Ariettes oubliées' belong to a broader scheme of artistic and societal reflection on time and identity in the nineteenth century. Throughout this key section of the Romances sans paroles, ecological and temporal singularities complement the destabilizing effects of Verlaine's subversive versification: particular Ariettes can be interpreted as attuned to the natural elements, highlighting not only the extent to which Verlaine's poetry is linked to his environment, but also the dearth of human complicity with the non-human world in nineteenth-century French society. By investigating how the intricacies of a broader psychosocial enquiry are developed through the indexation of poetic concerns against ecological and temporal particularities in Verlaine's first, third, sixth, eighth and ninth Ariettes, these enigmatic vignettes evoking uncertainty in love and relational anxieties will be elucidated. Each of these five Ariettes ultimately constitutes a nuance to a process of ecopoetic maturation, manifest not only in the increasing virtuosity with which prosodic rules are subverted, but also in the evolving role of ecological phenomena as counterparts to Verlaine's exploration of amorous, sensorial and temporal concerns.