Verhaeren, Emile (1855-1916): a Belgian francophone poet, born in Saint-Amand (province of Antwerpd'Anvers) and who died in an accident in France, at the Rouen train station. Born into a prosperous background in which French was the language spoken, whereas Flemish was spoken by the working classes, he studied law at the University of Louvain. He then enrolled in the Brussels Bar and began work at the chambers of Edmond Picard, who introduced him to Belgian artistic and literary circles. He nevertheless quickly abandoned his law career, far preferring to write for L' Art moderne and La Jeune Belgique, which enabled him to support with his quill young artists such as James Ensor. His first collection of poems, Les Flamandes (1883), of naturalistic brushwork, presented a series of ‘paintings’ inspired by the region of his birth. But his poetry, marked by symbolism, soon acquired a dark and mournful tone (Les Flambeaux noirs, 1891), before being converted to modernism and the progress of humanity: this was the period when he rallied to the socialist cause and produced the masterpieces of musicality which are Les Campagnes hallucinées (1893), Les Villages illusoires (1895) and Les Villes tentaculaires (1895). His reputation spread thus to France and then to the whole of Europe. The Great War nevertheless brought into question his humanist values and his faith in a better future, a distress which can be clearly felt in his final work: Les Ailes rouges de la guerre (1916).