Laforgue, Jules (1860–1887)

French poet. He experimented with new kinds of verse forms, rhythms, and vocabulary, and pioneered free verse. His work, which was also influenced by the Symbolists, is often marked by a lyrical irony. It made a considerable impact on 20th‐century poets, including Ezra Pound and T S Eliot. His books of verse include Les Complaintes (1885) and Imitation de Notre‐Dame la lune (1886), while his best‐known prose work is the collection of short stories Moralités légendaires (1887).

Laforgue was born in Montevideo, Uruguay. He moved to France and was educated in Tarbes, and then Paris, where he studied at the Lycée Condorcet. He was French reader to the German empress Augusta 1881–86. In his spare time he studied English and German and wrote verses. He married an English woman, Leah Lee, in 1886 and settled in Paris, but died a few months later from tuberculosis.