Renée Vivien was born Mary Tarn in London,1877. She was the product of a wealthy British father and an American mother from Jackson, Michigan. At 21, Vivien inherited her fathers fortune and permanently resided in France.
Vivien lived the "high life", as we would call it these days, as an out lesbian--rich and in love to an openly gay American heiress and writer Natalie Clifford Barney. She then had several relationships along the way, one of which was her close friend from back home, Violet Shilli. This relationship eventually led to the break-up of Vivien and Barney. Many more women from other countries swooned over Vivien, including Istanbul's Kérimé Turkhan Pasha, the Turkish diplomat's wife.
Viviens was a British poet who wrote in the French language. Her compositions include sonnets, hendecasyllabic verse and prose poetry.
She later died at 35 in 1909, due to alcoholism and anorexia. Just another torn writer who had withheld an unnecessary amount of money, as well as unpromising love affairs that ripped her heart in two.
Here is a taste of some of her parts!
The Touch
The trees have kept some lingering sun in their branches,
Veiled like a woman, evoking another time,
The twilight passes, weeping. My fingers climb,
Trembling, provocative, the line of your haunches.
My ingenious fingers wait when they have found
The petal flesh beneath the robe they part.
How curious, complex, the touch, this subtle art--
As the dream of fragrance, the miracle of sound.
I follow slowly the graceful contours of your hips,
The curves of your shoulders, your neck, your upappeased breasts.
In your white voluptuousness my desire rests,
Swooning, refusing itself the kisses of your lips.
Please visit Lesbian Poet Herstory for more of Renée Viviens pieces.
