Music Monday: Some ‘Words from the Front’

An Appreciation of Tom Verlaine, the Former Frontman for Television and a Brilliant Poet and Guitarist, Upon His Passing

Hank Kalet Jan 30 ∙ Preview

Save

In the poem “Ars Poetica,” the French poet Paul Verlaine argues for a kind of open-ended sensibility, a poetry that exists in the gray, murky areas of the mind. Meaning is elusive and allusive, very much like instrumental music, open to interpretation on an emotional if not intellectual level.

For Nuance, not Color absolute,

Is your goal; subtle and shaded hue!

Nuance! It alone is what lets you

Marry dream to dream, and horn to flute!

“Ars Poetica” might be seen as the Symbolist’s creed — Verlaine is often linked to the movement. “Symbolist artists sought to express individual emotional experience through the subtle and suggestive use of highly symbolized language,” Brittanica says.

They attempted to evoke the ineffable intuitions and sense impressions of man’s inner life and to communicate the underlying mystery of existence through a free and highly personal use of metaphors and images that, though lacking in precise meaning, would nevertheless convey the state of the poet’s mind and hint at the “dark and confused unity” of an inexpressible reality.

I mention Verlaine and the Symbolists in the context of the news that a different Verlaine has passed, Tom Verlaine. Verlaine was born Thomas Miller, and took his stage name from the great French poet, also borrowing the French writer’s symbolist sensibility, which was evident in both his lyrics and his sinewy guitar playing. Verlaine led the seminal New York punk band Television and recorded numerous solo albums, creating a music that has long influenced my own writing in ways I can’t explain.

Upgrade to paid

Keep reading with a 7-day free trial

Subscribe to Channel Surfing to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.

Start trial

A subscription gets you:

	Subscriber-only posts and full archive
	Post comments and join the community
	Get a copy of As An Alien in a Land of Promise.

Like Comment Share

Join Channel Surfing in the app
Chat with the community, interact with Hank Kalet, and never miss a post.

© 2023 Hank Kalet
Email me for address.
Unsubscribe