Joys

<p><em>Joys</em> (<em>Joies</em> in French) is the fourth book of poetry written by Francis Vielé-Griffin (1864-1937). It was first published in 1889 when Griffin was 25 years old. Griffin was American by birth born in Virginia. As a boy of seven or eight years old he was sent to France by his father to attend school; he remained.</p><p><br></p><p>Francis Vielé-Griffin was an adherent and one of the principal and early practitioners of the Symbolist movement in poetry which grew out of the Decadent movement of poetry. An intimate friend of Stéphane Mallarmé Griffin was also a great believer in free verse.</p><p><br></p><p>In his own words Griffin says this about <em>Joys</em>:</p><p><br></p><p>The verse is free verse; - which means nothing more than that the ʻoldʼ Alexandrine with one or more ʻcæsuraʼ with or without ʻrejetʼ or ʻenjambmentʼ is abolished or put down; but - more generally - that no fixed form is considered as the necessary mold anymore for the expression of all poetic thought; that from now on but consciously free this time the Poet will obey the personal rhythm that must be without M. de Banville or any other ʻlegislator of Parnassusʼ intervening; and that talent shall resplend in different ways than by the traditional or illusory ʻvanquished difficultiesʼ of rhetorical poetics: - Art is not merely learnt it recreates itself continually; it does not live by tradition but by evolving.</p>