Paul Verlaine with Verlaine, Mallarmé, Rimbaud, Paul Valéry, Albert Samain and many others began to be referred to as "Symbolists." These poets would often share themes that parallel Schopenhauer's aesthetics and notions of will, fatality and unconscious forces, and used themes of sex (such as prostitutes), the city, irrational phenomena (delirium, dreams, narcotics, alcohol), and sometimes a vaguely medieval setting. In poetry, the symbolist procedure—as typified by Verlaine—was to use subtle suggestion instead of precise statement (rhetoric was banned) and to evoke moods and feelings through the magic of words and repeated sounds and the cadence of verse (musicality) and metrical innovation.
If the Poet also performed at festivals including Word On The Street and Words Aloud, as well as locally in southern Ontario. He currently resides in Toronto and Bracebridge, Ontario. He was the focus of the 2015 CBC Television documentary "IF the Poet". French lives with Lise St-Arnaud in Toronto. If the Poet Ian French is a Canadian Spoken Word Artist and poet that goes by the handle IF THE POET, or, IF. Among his championships he was Canadian champion in 2014, and placed third in the 2015 world championship. French was the focus of the 2015 documentary film "IF the Poet". After