Verlaine's poetry is the poetry of protest, revolt, commitment and resistance. Its contestation covers both poetry (classical or romantic) and society (meaning morality and politics). Verlaine adopts strategies of resistance which go from simple allusion to the revolt through irony, satire and other processes. But he extends its fight well beyond poetry as a means, to poetry as an object. This latter form is the place of his resistance against the fleeting time. Indeed, the hope that Verlaine associates with posterity is his way of defying death. His effort of perfection aims for the perenniality of his work.

Verlaine's poetry is the poetry of protest, revolt, commitment and resistance. Its contestation covers both poetry (classical or romantic) and society (meaning morality and politics). Verlaine adopts strategies of resistance which go from simple allusion to the revolt through irony, satire and other processes. But he extends its fight well beyond poetry as a means, to poetry as an object. This latter form is the place of his resistance against the fleeting time. Indeed, the hope that Verlaine associates with posterity is his way of defying death. His effort of perfection aims for the perenniality of his work.