1854-1919
Tailhade's satires seem rough if one come upon them straight from
reading Laforgue; and Laforgue will seem, and is presumably, the greatly
finer artist; but one should not fail to note certain definite
differences. Laforgue is criticizing, and conveying a mood. He is more
or less literary, playing with words. Tailhade is painting contemporary
Paris, with verve. His eye is on the thing itself. He has, au fond, not
very much in common with Laforgue. He was born six years before Laforgue
and in the same year as Rimbaud. Their temperaments are by no means
identical. I do not know whether Tailhade wrote "Hydrotherapie" before
Rimbaud had done "Les Chercheuses." Rimbaud in that poem identifies
himself more or less with the child and its feeling. Tailhade is
detached. I do not say this as praise of either one or the other. I am
only trying to keep things distinct.