# Raoul Ponchon > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Raoul_Ponchon > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Raoul_Ponchon.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raoul_Ponchon > Source revision: 1353896316 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) French poet You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in French. (January 2012) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the French article. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must follow the LLM translation guideline, revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing French Wikipedia article at [[:fr:Raoul Ponchon]]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template {{Translated|fr|Raoul Ponchon}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation. Ponchon, *Muse gaillarde* frontispice, ed. 1939 **Raoul Ponchon** (French pronunciation: [\[ʁaul pɔ̃ʃɔ̃\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA/French); born 30 December 1848 in [La Roche-sur-Yon](/source/La_Roche-sur-Yon), [France](/source/France), died 3 December 1937 in [Paris](/source/Paris), [France](/source/France)) was a French poet. A friend of [Arthur Rimbaud](/source/Arthur_Rimbaud), he was one of only "seven known recipients" of the first edition of *[A Season in Hell](/source/A_Season_in_Hell)*.[1] He was a contributor to the satirical weekly *[Le Courrier français](/source/Le_Courrier_fran%C3%A7ais_(1884%E2%80%931913))*. Raoul was one of the founders of the [Zutist Group](/source/Zutiste).[2] Though he did not care for honors, he was elected to the [Académie Goncourt](/source/Acad%C3%A9mie_Goncourt) in 1924.[3] He was made a knight of the Legion of Honor on 4 January 1925, and elevated to the rank of officer on 12 December 1932.[4] He considered himself a poetaster unworthy of official publication,[5] and the only book he published in his lifetime was *La Muse au cabaret*, which appeared in 1920, when he was 72 years old. Ponchon is the first entry in [Guillaume Apollinaire](/source/Guillaume_Apollinaire)'s *Contemporains pittoresques*. Apollinaire writes: "The last of our [Bacchic](/source/Dionysus) poets, and one of our best, is an angry drunk [...] this little miracle of a lyric journalist is perhaps the only example now existing of a writer or poet in whose talent appears no immediate trace of any foreign literature. Notwithstanding his other talents, his intentional manner, his spontaneous art, it is above all this that renders him interesting, since, my God, we well know that he's spent his life trying to do violence to himself in order to remain an insignificant poet. It's a sort of pride rare in our days, and to have it much is necessary: one needs a lot of talent, and one needs to drink."[6] Apollinaire recounts an anecdote in which excessive drunkenness almost cost Ponchon his life, and speaks of the rare devotion he bore towards his friends, despite his general [misanthropy](/source/Misanthropy) and bursts of temper. Ponchon died on 3 December 1937, at the hôpital Saint-Joseph in Paris, after an attack of [pulmonary edema](/source/Pulmonary_edema).[7] ## See also - [Nina de Villard de Callias](/source/Nina_de_Callias) - [Zutiste](/source/Zutiste) ## References 1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** Robb, Graham (2000). *Rimbaud*. W.W. Norton and Co. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** Wagneur, Jean-Didier (3 December 2014). ["Hydropathes et Buveurs d'eau"](https://www.liberation.fr/livres/2014/03/12/hydropathes-et-buveurs-d-eau_986530/). 1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** photographique (commanditaire), Agence Rol Agence (1927). ["7/12/27, jury \[du\] prix Goncourt \[debout, de g. à d.\] Gaston Chérau, Raoul Ponchon, Pol Neveux, Jean Ajalbert, Rosny jeune \[et, assis\] Hennique, Rosny aîné \[réunis au restaurant Drouant\] : \[photographie de presse\] / \[Agence Rol\]"](https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b531938546). *Gallica*. Retrieved 2026-03-11. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** ["Notice"](http://www2.culture.gouv.fr/public/mistral/leonore_fr?ACTION=CHERCHER&FIELD_1=COTE&VALUE_1=LH/2196/40). *www2.culture.gouv.fr*. Retrieved 2026-03-11. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** … Je suis un poète de troisième rang, je ne puis admettre que l’on me mette au premier », to Marcel Coulon, cited in *Toute la Muse*. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-6)** Apollinaire, Guillaume (1929). [*Contemporains pittoresques*](https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/007344916). Collection "Le Livre neuf"; 3. Paris: Les Éditions de la belle page. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-7)** [*\[Raoul Ponchon : nécrologie\]*](https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b105017950). 1937. ## External links - [Works by or about Raoul Ponchon](https://archive.org/search.php?query=%28%28subject%3A%22Ponchon%2C%20Raoul%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22Raoul%20Ponchon%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Ponchon%2C%20Raoul%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Raoul%20Ponchon%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Ponchon%2C%20R%2E%22%20OR%20title%3A%22Raoul%20Ponchon%22%20OR%20description%3A%22Ponchon%2C%20Raoul%22%20OR%20description%3A%22Raoul%20Ponchon%22%29%20OR%20%28%221848-1937%22%20AND%20Ponchon%29%29%20AND%20%28-mediatype:software%29) at the [Internet Archive](/source/Internet_Archive) - [Works by Raoul Ponchon](https://librivox.org/author/12931) at [LibriVox](/source/LibriVox) (public domain audiobooks) Authority control databases International ISNI 2 VIAF GND FAST WorldCat National United States France BnF data Czech Republic Netherlands Catalonia Belgium People Léonore Other IdRef Open Library Yale LUX This article about a poet from France is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by adding missing information. - [v](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:France-poet-stub) - [t](/source/Template_talk%3AFrance-poet-stub) - [e](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:EditPage/Template:France-poet-stub) --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Raoul Ponchon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raoul_Ponchon) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raoul_Ponchon?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.