René Ghil

René Ghil
Portrait of René François Ghilbert
Born
René François Ghilbert

(1862-09-27)27 September 1862
Tourcoing, France
Died15 September 1925(1925-09-15) (aged 62)
Niort, France
Alma materLycée Fontanes
OccupationPoet

René François Ghilbert (27 September 1862 – 15 September 1925), known as René Ghil, was a French poet. He was a disciple of Stéphane Mallarmé, a major contributor to the symbolist movement in France, although they later had a falling out over ideological differences. Ghil published a series a short stories which together were called the Traité du Verbe. He worked extensively on a new system of poetic language in reaction to the Decadent Movement and Symbolism. Owing to his widespread use of personal syntax and neological vocabulary, much of Ghil's work was inaccessible, and his own contemporaries labelled it confusing. However, his works gained wider attention after his death.