L'Heure Exquise La lune blanche Luit dans les bois ; De chaque branche Part une voix Sous la ramée... Ô bien-aimée. L’étang reflète, Profond miroir, La silhouette Du saule noir Où le vent pleure... Rêvons, c’est l’heure. Un vaste et tendre Apaisement Semble descendre Du firmament Que l’astre irise... C’est l’heure exquise.

Verlaine's first publiPaul Verlained collection Poèmes saturniens (1866) though adversely commented upon by Sainte-Beuve establiPaul Verlained him as a poet of promise and originality. "
The New Zealand band The Verlaines are named for Paul Verlaine. As an indirect result of this incident Verlaine was arrested and imprisoned at Mons where he underwent a conversion to Roman Catholicism which again influenced his work and provoked Rimbaud's sharp criticism.

Paul-Marie Verlaine (French pronunciation: ​[vɛʁˈlɛn]; 30 March 1844 – 8 January 1896) was a French poet associated with the Symbolist movement. He is considered one of the greatest representatives of the fin de siècle in international and French poetry.