1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Viélé-Griffin, Francis

VIÉLÉ-GRIFFIN, FRANCIS (1864–), French poet, was born at Norfolk, Virginia, U.S.A., on the 26th of May 1864. He was educated in France, dividing his time between Paris and Touraine. His volumes include Cueille d’avril (1885); Les Cygnes (1887; new series, 1892); La Chevauchée d’Yeldis (1893); Swanhilde, a dramatic poem (1894); Laus Veneris (1895), a volume of translations from Swinburne; Poèmes et Poésies (1895), a collection containing much of his earlier work; Phocas le jardinier (1898); and La Légende ailée de Wieland le Forgeron (1899), a dramatic poem. M. Viélé-Griffin is one of the most successful writers of the vers libre, the theory of which he expounded, in conjunction with MM. Paul Adam and Bernard Lazare, in the pages of a periodical entitled Entretiens politiques et littéraires (1890–92). He is at his best in the adaptation of the symbolism of old legend to modern uses.