Paul Marie Verlaine, 1844-1896, was a French author and poet who belonged to the Decadent and Symbolist movements. He was born on March 30, 1844 in Metz, France. After spending his youth writing poetry and associating with the famous artists and writers of his day, he published his first volume of his own poetry in 1863. He married Mathilde Mauté in August 1870; however, he abandoned her and their young son in 1872 to begin an affair with the poet Arthur Rimbaud. Verlaine was imprisoned in 1873 after shooting and injuring Rimbaud in a jealous rage. While in prison, Verlaine underwent a re-conversion to Roman Catholicism, which would influence his later work. He achieved wider literary recognition in the 1880s, especially after the publication of "Art poétique" in 1882, which was adopted as part of the Symbolist movement. Verlaine's emotional state deteriorated over the last years of his life after the death of another lover, his student Lucien Létinois, in 1883 and the dissolution of his marriage to Mathilde Mauté. He became addicted to drugs and alcohol and lived in poverty, even while his poetry continued to bring him fame. His autobiography, Confessions, notes autobiographiques, was published in 1895, and he died on January 8, 1896 in Paris. Verlaine's poetry remains one of the greatest examples of the fin de siècle in French poetry, and his works influenced many other artists, such as composer Claude Debussy.