Paul VERLAINE. Signed autograph poem, *Chansons pour Elle*, [September 1891]; 1 page, in-8 (20.5 x 13.2 cm) on graph paper. Working manuscript of the final poem from *Chansons pour Elle*, a collection published by L. Vanier in 1891. The manuscript bears the title *Chansons pour Elle*; though untitled in the collection, the poem is numbered XXV and concludes the volume. It consists of 15 lines, in 3 quatrains, each followed by a monostich. The manuscript contains numerous cross-outs and corrections, as well as a variant in the second line, which appears here in the plural (in the singular in the published edition). “I was a mystic, and I am no longer (Women have taken me back entirely), Not without retaining absolute respect For the ideal I had to renounce. But woman has taken me back entirely!”…