Guillaume Apollinaire

Guillaume Apollinaire (1880–1918) was a French poet, playwright, and art critic who helped shape the avant-garde culture of early 20th-century Paris. Born in Rome, he moved to France and became a central figure among modernist artists and writers. As a critic, he championed new painting, writing influentially on Cubism and coining the term “Orphism.” His poetry blended everyday speech with bold imagery and formal experiment, notably in *Alcools* (1913) and the calligram poems of *Calligrammes* (1918). During World War I he served in the French army, was wounded in 1916, and died in Paris in 1918.