Afternoon

This is a book written in the language of devotion itself. Belgian poet Émile Verhaeren, one of the great lyrical voices of early twentieth-century Europe, turned his considerable powers toward a single subject: the woman he loved. The poems that comprise Afternoon were composed in the golden light of shared afternoons with his wife Marthe, and they radiate with the particular tenderness of a man who has found his life's companion. Verhaeren's verse moves through the domestic sacred, finding in Marthe's presence the same sublime intensity that other poets reserved for gods or empires. These are poems of constancy, of flesh and spirit intertwined, of love as both flame and anchor. First published in French in 1905, the collection arrived in English during the cataclysm of the Great War, a testament to love's endurance even as Europe burned. For readers who believe that the greatest poetry springs not from suffering alone but from happiness boldly claimed, Afternoon offers itself as proof.