Prose poetry probably began in Asia, in 17th century Japan with the work of Matsua Bashō. He created a form called haibun that combined haiku with prose. But in Europe it first appeared in France and Germany in the 19th century. The earliest in France was "Gaspard de la nuit" (1842) by Louis Bertrand. The most famous example may be Charles Baudelaire’s "Petits Poèmes en prose", or "Le Spleen de Paris".