Cursed
Ebook created by the students of the International Section of Lycée Lesage, Vannes, Brittany, France
Ebook created by the students of the International Section of Lycée Lesage, Vannes, Brittany, France
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"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I - /<br />
I took the one less traveled by, / And that has made all the difference."<br />
The Road Not Taken, Robert Frost<br />
CURSED?<br />
B Y T H E I N T E R N A T I O N A L S E C T I O N<br />
L E S A G E H I G H S C H O O L / B R I T T A N Y / F R A N C E<br />
A book about breaking norms and finding one's bliss.
The challenge of (y)our<br />
time is to find a journey<br />
worthy of your heart and<br />
your soul.<br />
Art is frightening<br />
Art isn't pretty<br />
Art isn't painting.<br />
Art isn't something you hang on the wall.<br />
Art is what we do when we're truly alive.<br />
Art might scare you.<br />
Art might bust you.<br />
But art is who we are and what we do and what<br />
we need.<br />
Art isn't a result; it's a journey.<br />
Seth Goldin, The Icarus deception, Penguin, 2012
cursed?<br />
The term 'cursed poet' was first of all used by Paul<br />
Verlaine (a Franch writer) but it is also used in other<br />
countries. Verlaine wrote a book called 'Les Poètes<br />
Maudits' which was published in 1884 and deals with<br />
poetry at the end of the XIXth century.<br />
In this essay, Verlaine describes the life of six poets:<br />
Tristan Corbière,<br />
Arthur Rimbaud,<br />
Stéphane Mallarmé,<br />
Marceline Desbordes-Valmore,<br />
Auguste de Villiers de l'Isle-Adam<br />
and himself ('Pauvre Lelian').<br />
Verlaine considered them as 'cursed' because of their<br />
tragic lives, but what does-it really mean?<br />
By Alice Thiery and Evane Stindel
eulogy<br />
for<br />
Here’s Poem, lain down in his<br />
Poem<br />
grave, under the tombstone. He<br />
left us on the cold first January of<br />
2018, he was such a great old<br />
grey-hair man, born in the Ancient<br />
Greece in Antiquity...
... Poem has lived for a very long time, but today he is no<br />
longer here. But why? Who killed him? Who is guilty?<br />
I can tell you: it’s the poets themselves, Poem’s dads, they<br />
are all cursed.<br />
They get their inspiration from their pains, they avoid the<br />
gloomy reality by drinking alcohol and exhaust themselves<br />
by opting for poetry instead of living their life<br />
They are always poor orphans and their mind is broken.<br />
These phantom poets are Verlaine, Rimbaud, Edgar Allen<br />
Poe, etc… And they murdered their own child.
However, nowadays because poets are still<br />
Poems used to be loved by children.<br />
cursed and poems are outdated, people<br />
prefer rap music which is often only insults,<br />
pop music which is only a repetition of words<br />
or electro music which has even no lyrics!<br />
It’s totally a shame. Remember! All kinds of<br />
music were inspired by poetry. We already<br />
miss you, Poem. All your life you wanted to<br />
marvel our dream, our life. But today you've<br />
vanished without leaving any trace.<br />
Anyway Poem is gone, and nevertheless he’ll<br />
stay forever in our hearts. His closest friends,<br />
Alliteration,<br />
Assonance,<br />
Simile<br />
and not forgetting rhyme<br />
are all gathered here for Poem’s death.<br />
Poem has literally changed the life of many<br />
people.<br />
Today he can be proud of himself. He<br />
achieved his goal,<br />
He can now rest in peace.<br />
Poem, thank you for being part of our lives.<br />
We are all going to miss you.
'We make a living by what we get,<br />
we make a life by what we give'<br />
If that is true, then Poem made a great life.<br />
Hugo Boucard - Glen Cobrun - Titouan Falc'hun
outsiders<br />
A cursed poet is an artist who is against or outside the<br />
society. He/she's got a hard and tragic life, with alcohol,<br />
drugs, violence, disease...<br />
Those artists are misunderstood and often rejected by<br />
people and society in general because they disagree<br />
with its standards.<br />
<strong>Cursed</strong> artists often die young and sad. Verlaine and<br />
Rimbaud are the two most famous of them and they<br />
are both a good representation of this 'movement'.<br />
KEY IDEA<br />
Poet as an outcast of modern society / sufferings and<br />
abuses / experience / feeelings<br />
By Alice Thiery and Evane Stindel
deadly<br />
beauty<br />
Successful poppy which brings beauty<br />
Signature of dreams, you, poppy flower<br />
In a restful sleep help me recover
Beauty and success<br />
Messages delivered in dreams<br />
Restful sleep and recovery<br />
Remembering the fallen of various wars<br />
and armed conflicts<br />
Consolation for a loss or death in the family<br />
Resurrection and eternal life<br />
A<br />
B<br />
B<br />
A<br />
Successful poppy which brings<br />
Signature of<br />
, you, poppy flower<br />
In a restful sleep help me recover.<br />
/Blooming after , you’re the envoy<br />
You’re here when I<br />
/Help me avoid<br />
dreams<br />
wars<br />
cry<br />
death<br />
beauty,<br />
peace<br />
, missing my family,<br />
and ignore its call.<br />
Marie Albert - Pauline Fontaine
love<br />
Verlaine was a French writer born in 1844. He<br />
published his first collection (Poèmes Saturniens) at<br />
the age of 22.<br />
In 1871, he met Rimbaud and fell in love with him<br />
(which was not well seen at this period) even if he was<br />
married. This love story ended with a drama when<br />
Verlaine shot and wounded Rimbaud. He has been<br />
condemned until 1875.<br />
His death in 1896 was due to disease and alcohol. He<br />
was a cursed poet because of his life in sin and<br />
misfortune.<br />
KEY IDEA<br />
A poet renowned for the fluidity and impressionistic<br />
imagery of his verse, Verlaine succeeded in liberating<br />
the musicality of the French language from the<br />
restrictions of its classical, formal structure.<br />
By Alice Thiery and Evane Stindel
was He<br />
the<br />
music<br />
And the words were dancing<br />
In the yellowing paper<br />
where the plum was spinning
But the Music stopped,<br />
and he came back to an inhospitable world,<br />
A destructive world.<br />
A rejected world.<br />
And he danced and danced again<br />
Between life and death<br />
Between death and life<br />
Torn, ripped and split.<br />
And he danced and danced again<br />
Between life and death<br />
Between death and life<br />
Torn, ripped and split.<br />
He was so tired<br />
But maybe it wasn’t too late<br />
Cuz his heart was so much more<br />
Than just a pump<br />
When his plum flew over the paper<br />
Sometimes, you’d better let it go, he told him<br />
and that’s one of the only things he remembered<br />
Het let everything go,<br />
His life first.<br />
Years after,<br />
They realize,<br />
Maybe<br />
That he was brilliant,<br />
And not just full of darkness<br />
They open their eyes,<br />
Their mind, maybe their heart<br />
And consider him as what he truly was<br />
A talented, inspiring,<br />
but underrated and tortured person.<br />
Maëlle Renaud
dark<br />
destiny<br />
Rimbaud was a French writer too, born in 1854. He<br />
wrote his first poems at the age of 15, abandoned<br />
poetry at 20, but he was still a great writer.<br />
As an anti-bourgeois, he was persuaded that he had a<br />
'dark destiny'. Rimbaud travelled all around the world,<br />
doing several 'bad jobs' and was forced to come back<br />
into France because of a leg pain that has been<br />
amputated in 1891. A few months later, he died of<br />
cancer.<br />
He was considered as a cursed poet because of the<br />
same reasons as his lover Verlaine. He died at the age<br />
of 35, which is quite young, so once more, he was<br />
unhappy and looked literally cursed.<br />
By Alice Thiery and Evane Stindel
DEATH<br />
THE OF<br />
DESPERATE<br />
POET<br />
The time flies so fast<br />
His presence on Earth has passed
His deeds will not last<br />
His plague breaks him down<br />
I hope he’ll be found<br />
The breath left his lung<br />
No matter how hard they try<br />
Poetry is doomed to die<br />
Our successors shall stand<br />
The group will disband<br />
In a gush of sand<br />
Louis Therville - Thomas Sanchez
hurt<br />
Frida Kahlo is a Mexican painter born in 1907.<br />
She is one of the most famous Mexican painters and made<br />
more than a hundred of paintings (particulary her realistic<br />
portraits) about her country and her life.<br />
In 1925, she had a serious bus accident and was badly<br />
wounded at legs and the column. Because she had to stay<br />
confined to bed for months, she started painting.<br />
In 1928, as she felt better, she joined the communist party.<br />
She met her future husband that same year and married in<br />
1929.<br />
But in the thirties she had two miscarriages and painted<br />
pictures during her recovery. In 1938, she got the chance to<br />
show her work in New York and sold a lot of paintings. But she<br />
had lost her right leg and died in 1954 at the age of 47. So she<br />
can be considered as a cursed poet because of all the<br />
misfortune that happened during her life and the way she<br />
expressed that through her art.<br />
KEY IDEA<br />
Kahlo made it legitimate for women to outwardly display their<br />
pains and frustrations and to thus make steps towards making<br />
sense of and understanding them. It became crucial for women<br />
artists to have a female role model and this is the gift of Frida<br />
Kahlo.<br />
By Alice Thiery and Evane Stindel
They tried to make me go to rehab<br />
I said, no, no, no<br />
EULOGY<br />
FOR<br />
AMY
Hello everyone, for those who don’t know me, I am Alex. I<br />
am Amy’s brother. I wanted to start thanking you all for<br />
coming, we truly appreciate that.<br />
I don’t know if you all knew her personally but I am still<br />
going to tell you a little about her story or the media think<br />
her story is.<br />
Amy was someone very impulsive and the media were<br />
playing with that to show her bad side by making her mad.<br />
She got married in 2007 and went to jail for marijuana<br />
possession. Her career got threatened because of drugs<br />
and she even punched a fan in 2008!<br />
All this made her send a bad image, a bad message. She<br />
got out of this really unhealthy relationship of hers in the<br />
end of 2008. She then won a couple of awards thanks to<br />
her amazing talent for music.<br />
she died on the 23 of July in 2011 which you already know<br />
since you’re here. She died at the age of 27 due to an<br />
accidental alcohol poisoning.<br />
So this is how the media depicted her but I am going to tell<br />
you more about her, from what I knew of her.<br />
My sister was someone who was really into what she was<br />
doing, which was music and this since she was little. In<br />
1993, she created a group called Sweet ’n’ Sour at the age<br />
of 10, which is crazy for someone this young. At the age of<br />
12, she joined the Sylvia Young Theater in which she could<br />
sing and play like she loved to.<br />
Yuna Le May - Camille Soulane
Yuna Le May
A couple of years later, she met Tyler James who is here<br />
today. I’d like to thank you for being here because you were<br />
the one who noticed her talent and proposed her a deal with<br />
Island Universal.<br />
Afterwards, as she had no visa to go to the Grammies, she<br />
decided to perform by satellite... and won 5 of them! In 2009<br />
she got into the Guiness World Book of Records for “Most<br />
Grammy Awards won by a British female singer”.<br />
I think my dad had some kind of influence in my sister’s<br />
death because he wasn’t there for her since she was 9 until<br />
she got famous and wealthy. We all knew she needed to go<br />
to rehab but He told her she didn’t HAVE to! I also think that<br />
Amy’s ex-husband was one of the other causes of her death<br />
because he was the one who made her a drug addict by<br />
pressured her to experiment with drugs.<br />
Now let me tell you about something. My teacher told me<br />
one day in class about the cursed poets. So a cursed poet<br />
is someone who is outside and against the society and who<br />
abuses of drugs and alcohol, insanity, crime, violence and in<br />
general any societal sin, often resulting in an early death…<br />
All typical elements of the biography of any curse poets!<br />
That’s why I think my sister can be considered as one of the<br />
most cursed poet in the XXIst century.<br />
Again I am thanking you all for coming and showing how<br />
much we loved Amy. thank you to listen to her.<br />
Yuna Le May - Camille Soulane
& POE<br />
MATHERS<br />
Loose yourself<br />
in a dream<br />
within a dream
Lucie Lecointre
Take this kiss upon the brow!<br />
And, in parting from you now,<br />
Thus much let me avow —<br />
You are not wrong, who deem<br />
That my days have been a<br />
dream;<br />
Yet if hope has flown away<br />
In a night, or in a day,<br />
In a vision, or in none,<br />
Is it therefore the less gone?<br />
All that we see or seem<br />
Is but a dream within a dream.<br />
Stand amid the roar<br />
Of a surf-tormented shore,<br />
And I hold within my hand<br />
Grains of the golden sand —<br />
How few! yet how they creep<br />
Through my fingers to the<br />
deep,<br />
While I weep — while I weep!<br />
O God! Can I not grasp<br />
Them with a tighter clasp?<br />
O God! can I not save<br />
One from the pitiless wave?<br />
Is all that we see or seem<br />
But a dream within a dream?<br />
Edgar Allan Poe<br />
A dream within a dream
Look, if you had one shot, one opportunity<br />
To seize everything you ever wanted<br />
One moment<br />
Would you capture it or just let it slip?<br />
Yo<br />
His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy<br />
There's vomit on his sweater already, mom's<br />
spaghetti<br />
He's nervous, but on the surface he looks calm and<br />
ready<br />
To drop bombs, but he keeps on forgettin'<br />
What he wrote down, the whole crowd goes so loud<br />
He opens his mouth, but the words won't come out<br />
He's chokin', how, everybody's jokin' now<br />
The clocks run out, times up, over, blaow!<br />
Snap back to reality, oh there goes gravity<br />
Oh, there goes Rabbit, he choked<br />
He's so mad, but he won't give up that easy? No<br />
He won't have it, he knows his whole back city's<br />
ropes<br />
It don't matter,<br />
He's dope, he knows that, but he's broke<br />
He's so stacked that he knows<br />
When he goes back to his mobile home, that's when<br />
it's<br />
Back to the lab again yo, this whole rhapsody<br />
He better go capture this moment and hope it don't<br />
pass him<br />
M. B. Mathers aka Eminem<br />
love yourself
This opportunity comes once in a lifetime you better<br />
The souls escaping, through this hole that it's gaping<br />
This world is mine for the taking<br />
Make me king, as we move toward a, new world order<br />
A normal life is boring, but super stardom's close to<br />
post-mortem<br />
It only grows harder, only grows hotter<br />
He blows us all over, these hoes is all on him<br />
Coast to coast shows, he's known as the globetrotter<br />
Lonely roads, God only knows<br />
He's grown farther from home, he's no father<br />
He goes home and barely knows his own daughter<br />
But hold your nose 'cause here goes the cold water<br />
His hoes don't want him no mo, he's cold product<br />
They moved on to the next schmo who flows<br />
He nose dove and sold nada<br />
So the soap opera is told and unfolds<br />
I suppose it's old partna, but the beat goes on<br />
Da da dumb da dumb da da<br />
You better lose yourself in the music, the moment<br />
You own it, you better never let it go<br />
You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow<br />
This opportunity comes once in a lifetime<br />
...<br />
love yourself<br />
M. B. Mathers aka Eminem
EULOGY<br />
FOR<br />
VINCENT<br />
Being an artist is etched in your<br />
flesh and your blood. Colors were<br />
your eyes and paintbrushes were<br />
your hands.
Dear Vincent,<br />
This is my last letter to you, I admire you as a man, as a<br />
brother but most of all as an artist. Being an artist is etched<br />
in your flesh and your blood. Colors were your eyes and<br />
paintbrushes were your hands. You gave all you had in<br />
paintings, you were trying to touch people so you put all<br />
your emotions in it. You chose to have an unconventional<br />
life because as you said; “Normality is a paved road: It’s<br />
comfortable to walk, but no flowers grow on it” You were<br />
considered as an eccentric, people despised you and you<br />
ended up into an asylum. Personally, I think this was a<br />
“great” period for you in which you painted few<br />
masterpieces.<br />
Morgane Le Carre - Louise Lelimouzin
As Richepin said ; « L’amour de l’art fait perdre l’amour vrai. »<br />
Art was the love of your life, even if painting meant poverty for<br />
you, you were still painting two or three paintings each day.<br />
Nobody could understand your genius, your obsession with<br />
painting. Even though you were not recognized as a painter<br />
you kept painting. People even thought you were crazy<br />
because of this obsession which consumed you but I knew<br />
the truth. The truth, ladies and gentlemen, is that he wasn’t<br />
crazy, he would have been if he hadn’t had painting in his life.<br />
His devotion to art gave sense to his life. Vincent, you were<br />
always trying to improve yourself, to try new things.<br />
What I want you to remember of Vincent is his vision of life: be<br />
devoted to what makes you happy, be devoted to beauty!<br />
Remember also a normal life isn’t a true life so live as an<br />
unconventional but live!<br />
Ever yours,<br />
Théo<br />
Morgane Le Carre - Louise Lelimouzin
I love you much,<br />
it’s not enough
I love you much, it’s not enough<br />
Et je tremble, pardonnez-moi<br />
D’aussi franchement vous le dire,<br />
Love is a losing game.<br />
Yvan Chevrel
I am here<br />
tiny under sun rising in vast white sky,<br />
staring thru skeleton new buildings,<br />
with pen in hand awake...<br />
Allen Ginsberg, December 11, 1974<br />
This ebook has been written by<br />
the students of the<br />
International section of Lycée<br />
Lesage (Vannes, Brittany,<br />
France), as part of their<br />
'literature and society' class,<br />
with their teachers Annick<br />
Herviou and Laure Le Gurun in<br />
2018.