Artur Rimbaud | foundation of poetry (2023)

The impact of Arthur Rimbaud's poetry was immense. His influence on the Surrealist movement was widely recognized, and a large number of poets referred to it.second bretonto André Freynaud, have recognized his commitment to Rimbaud's vision and technique. He was the enfant terrible of French poetry in the second half of the 19th century and an important symbolic figure. His works continue to be widely read and translated into numerous languages. English-speaking poets such as Samuel Beckett and John Ashbery translated and were influenced by Rimbaud's works.

Jean-Nicolas-Arthur Rimbaud was born on October 20, 1854 in Charleville, in north-eastern France, the second son of Captain Frédéric Rimbaud and Marie-Cathérine-Vitalie Rimbaud, née Cuif. He had an older brother, Frédéric, born in 1853, and two younger sisters: Vitalie, born in 1858, and Isabelle, born in 1860. The father was absent for most of Rimbaud's childhood. Rimbaud's difficult relationship with his overbearing mother is reflected in many of his early poems, such as "Les Poètes de sept ans" ("The Seven-Year-Old Poets", 1871). Rimbaud's mother was a devout Christian, and Rimbaud associated her with many of the values ​​he rejected: conventional religious beliefs and practices, the principles of hard work and scientific endeavor, patriotism, and social snobbery.

In 1870-1871, Rimbaud ran away from home three times. The outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in July 1870 led to the closure of his school, the Collège de Charleville, ending Rimbaud's formal education. In August he went to Paris, but was arrested at the train station for driving without a ticket and briefly jailed. He spent several months in France and Belgium before his mother had the police take him home. In February 1871 he fled again to join the insurgents in the Paris Commune; he returned home three weeks later, just before the Commune was brutally suppressed by the army. During this time he developed his own poetic style and elaborated his theory offortune telling, a visionary program in which the poetic process becomes a vehicle to explore other realities. This theory is expressed in the much quoted letters from him dated May 13, 1871 to his friend and teacher Georges Izambard and May 15, 1871 to Paul Demeny. Rimbaud was still drawn to Paris, where he might have met the leading poets of the day: Théodore de Banville, Charles Cros, andPaul Verlaine. Her September 1871 letter to Verlaine, which contained samples of his poetry, provoked the response: "Venez, chère grande âme, on vous appelle, on vous Attend" (Come, great and dear soul, we call you, we are expecting). Rimbaud arrived in Paris in September and moved in with Verlaine and Verlaine's wife, Mathilde Mauté. A romantic relationship developed between Rimbaud and Verlaine, and Verlaine's marriage became increasingly rocky.

Rimbaud's first poemspoems, were written between 1869 and 1872 and published by Paul Verlain in 1895. They are superficially his most technically orthodox works. On closer inspection, however, they reveal many indications of a precocious poet who set out to 'trouver une langue' (find a language), as he put it in his letter of May 15, 1871, and ultimately to revolutionize the gender. the theme ispoemsshow virtually all the themes and interests normally associated with Rimbaud. Poems like "Le Mal" ("Evil") and "Le Dormeur de val" ("The Sleeper in the Valley") illustrate the absurdity of war; “Le Châtiment de Tartufe” (“The Punishment of Tartuffe”) presents Molière's eponymous imposter in sonnet form as the epitome of hypocrisy; "Au Cabaret-vert" ("In the Green Tavern"), "La Maline" ("The Clever One") and "Ma Bohème" ("My Bohemian Existence") alternately celebrate the physical pleasures of the bohemian lifestyle to the moral . straightness of bourgeois Existence. In “A la musique” (“To Music”), Rimbaud revels in the prized role of observer to him as he satirises the bourgeoisie with the technique of grotesque caricature. "Les Effarés" ("The Frightened") reveals both his humorous and cartoonish portrayal of characters on the fringes of conventional society - in this case, five Christian-looking children peering into a bakery - and his social conscience as a commentator of exclusion , poverty and hunger. “Oraison du soir” (“Evening Prayer”) shows his anti-Christian rage and his desire to shock and outrage tastefully accepted ideas by portraying himself as a rebellious angel who, in a blasphemous gesture of defiance against his Creator , has fallen in the sky urinating.

Hepoems, but they also demonstrate Rimbaud's drive to expand the poetic idiom, transcend the rigor and limitations of orthodox verse, and take poetry on a daring journey into technical and visionary realms previously unimagined. In this regard thepoemsExpect Rimbaud's most fascinating later work and his profound influence on the poetry of his own time, as well as that of the 20th and 21st centuries. In the letter of May 15, 1871, he says: "Viendront d'autres horribles travailleurs" (Other terrible workers will come)-a prescient affirmation of his role as initiator of a process that would continue long after he himself had stopped writing.

The lengthy 'Les Poètes de sept ans' brings together many of Rimbaud's thematic interests, but also hints at the technical, linguistic, and visionary liberation that became a by-product of his celebrated revolt. In the opening lines, he contrasts the repressive mother with the discontented seven-year-old boy, who on the outside submits to the dictates but on the inside seethes with contempt: "l'âme de son enfant livrée aux répugnances" (his soul from him). . disgusted child). The child leads a dual life involving superficial respect for material limitations and a secret other existence in which he is drawn to places, allies, and activities that would be anathema to the mother's embodied society:

Rimbaud is rather coy in his choice of "tacky" vocabulary like "latrines"; An integral part of his poetic creed was the principle that the sacred tenets of traditional verse, such as the concept of "poetic" and "non-poetic" terminology, must be challenged. The child poet searches for clay both as a symbol of his rejection of the bourgeois totem of cleanliness and as an indicator of his fondness for raw materials from the natural environment. He associates himself with the dirt of the district in an instinctive rejection of his mother's social fugitive and a desire to find companionship among the outcasts of society; hence the use of the pluralthe poetsin the title of the poem is confirmed. The child fears the Christian Sabbath and reading the Bible above all; This negative reaction is offset by his positive reaction to the district workers.

The most important elements of 'Les Poètes de sept ans' are found in the middle and back sections, in which Rimbaud examines the visionary activities of the child poet, activities carried out far from the watchful eye of the parents and which constitute a different life, different . One recalls the emphasis on the self as other in the two letters of May 1871 - "Je est un autre" (I am another) - and how these letters emphasize the poet's function as a medium between everyday reality and a sketch of the past. unexplored."elsewhere"(elsewhere). Exotic diaries help the seven-year-old poet evoke new worlds:

At the end of the poem, the boy has withdrawn to the privacy of his room, with the blinds drawn to create an intense and intimate atmosphere. Here the stage is set for an imaginative flight triggered by "son roman sans cesse médité" (his infinitely elaborate novel), and the last six lines evoke a surreal landscape. Neighborhood life continues below, counteracting the novelty of the inner world the boy explores, a world of "lourd ciels ocreux" (heavy ocher sky) and "forêts noyées" (sunken forests). In the final words of the poem, "presentant violemment la voile" (to have a violent presentiment of sailing), the image of anticipated sailing is linked to the visionary and linguistic adventure described in "Le Bateau ivre" (translated as "The Drunken Boat ", 1931), and which is the quintessence of Rimbaud's later poetic prose.

Many of the later poems ofpoemsthey prefigure Rimbaud's later experimentation with language. The letter to Demeny of May 15, 1871 combines Rimbaud's visionary program with a linguistic agenda, and simply indicts an entire tradition of French verse, from Jean Racine to the romantics.Carlos Baudelaireand to a lesser extent Victor Hugo escapes criticism. Rimbaud's search for a universal language is a defining feature of his work and is particularly evident in Voyelles (1884; translated as Vowel Sonnet, 1931), Ce qu'on dit au poète à propos de fleurs (What dem poet is narrated by flowers?) ) and “Le Bateau ivre” (1871-1872). The very idea of ​​coloring vowels, composing a poem out of their subjective associations, speaks to Rimbaud's preoccupation with the minutiae of language and his desire to challenge and reconstruct accepted idioms. The title "Ce qu'on dit au poète à propos de fleurs" is a bold challenge to established poets; The work satirizes the nonsense of romantic platitudes and ridicules current practitioners asPharaoh(Jokester) and describes a new agenda for them asjuggling(tricks) that evoke unexpected visions. And 'Le Bateau ivre', known for its concatenation of dazzling images, is equally memorable for its linguistic ingenuity.

In March 1872, Rimbaud returned to Charleville to give the Verlaines a chance to reconcile. During this time he wrote thelast verses(“Last Verses”), published inFashion1886 Very experimental poems in verse, heavily influenced by Verlaine's style. Verlaine's poetry is characterized by melancholic tenderness, the muted evocation of landscape and character, the twilight of in-between states, the rejection of anything aggressively said or portrayed, and above all, musicality. In itlast versesRimbaud takes many of these technical features but combines them with unusual imagery and dense conceptual content. The result is a strange mix of apparent lightness and musical lightness, with heavy thematic elements made all the more intriguing by being conveyed in such seemingly incongruous ways. All of this is a big step away from the poetry ofpoems, where many conventional traits are found, and a review from the point of view of later poetic prose allows us to identify themlast versesas a key phase in Rimbaud's rejection of orthodox verse, his abandonment of rhyme, and his evolution towards a softer and less constrained form. That this is the case is confirmed in "Délires II" ("Delirio II"), a section ofA season in hell(1873; translated as "A Season in Hell", 1931), where Rimbaud reviews thelast verses, ironically and affectionately repeats some of the poems and sees them ambivalently as "L'histoire d'une de mes folies" (the story of one of my follies) and as a stage in the process of "alchimie du verbe" (alchemy of the word), the creation of a new poetic language.

One is immediately struck by the almost surreal quality of "Larme" ("Tear"), the opening track.last verses. The first words "Loin des..." (Far from...) suggest the poet's urgent need to distance himself from the mundane and everyday. This escape is facilitated by a dark potion, a golden liquor that opens a fantastic landscape ruled by oneStorm(Storm) where the elements are released to create the chaos that will quench the metaphysical thirst of the poet. The poem 'Comédie de la soif' ('Thirst Comedy') in its five-part structure suggests the influence of the five acts of classical tragedy and has a distinctive operatic flavour. In parts one to three the"Moi"(I) brusquely rejects the offers and attentive attentions of family, friends and "L'Esprit" (The Ghost), preferring to succumb to a death wish and the type of scenario seen in "Larme" rather than her Offering an alleged conventionalism life in a family environment with mundane activities. Parts four and five do that.Moia few moments of restful stillness to plan an alternative future course and anticipate the dissolution in nature. "Comédie de la soif" is particularly musical; The slenderness of its lines in parts one to four conveys an impression of lightness belied by its thematic content, and there is a strong sense of understatement throughout. But the superficial lightness and musical simplicity of the poem are combined with a linguistic focus and intensity that warrant endless re-examination.

Just as this poem promotes itself as a "comédie", "Chanson de la plus haute tour" ("Song of the Highest Tower") draws attention to itself for being musically inspired. The narrowness of the lines on the page recalls the architecture of the tower in which the poet imaginatively withdrew. The six lines of the opening stanza are repeated word for word in the final stanza, creating the effect of a refrain where the poem ends on itself. Presenting himself as degenerate, the poet laments the loss of his youth and seeks to overcome his own torment by invoking a universal love:

The immediately following poems "L'Eternité" ("Eternity") and "Age d'or" ("Golden Age") have a similar structure and line length to "Chanson de la plus haute tour". "L'Eternité" embodies the essence oflast versesin its captivating musicianship, deceptively slender appearance, and dark, dense intellectual foundation. What is especially striking is the original way in which Rimbaud combines a musical form usually associated with a simple celebration or a joyous display of love with an abstract content replete with terms such as 'suffrages' (approval), 'élans' (impulses) , "devoir" (duty), "espérance" (hope) and "supplice" (torture). The effect of this combination is to confuse the reader, since the musicality suggests an easily understandable text; It remains, however, a work that forces one to return again and again in search of an explanation of its central importance. The simplicity of the opening and closing quatrain is at odds with the imprecise and abstract nature of the following vocabulary:

While other poems such as Fêtes de la faim (Famine Feasts) and O Saisons, ô châteaux (O Seasons, O Castles) share these characteristics, the collection also includes the voluminous poem Qu'est-ce pour nous, mon coeur... (What does that have to do with us, my heart...?), which deals with both sociopolitical upheavals and a private apocalypse; the acclaimed complexity of "Mémoire" (Memory), with its rich allusion and intricate tapestry of evocations of the past, self and family; and the charming and humorous quirks of "Bruxelles" (Brussels), where Rimbaud admires an unusual urban landscape and uses it as a bridge to something beyond himself.

In May 1872, Verlaine called Rimbaud back to Paris; in July he left his wife and child and went to London with Rimbaud. In April 1873, Rimbaud returned to his family's farm at Roche, near Charleville, where he began writing.A season in hell. In May 1873 she again accompanied Verlaine to London. After many arguments and another separation, the two men met in Brussels in July 1873, where Rimbaud tried to break off their relationship. Dismayed, Verlaine shot the young poet in the wrist; At the hospital where Rimbaud was being treated, the two claimed that the wound was inflicted accidentally. The next day, the two men were walking down the street when Verlaine reached into his pocket; Rimbaud thought that he was about to be shot again and ran towards a nearby police officer. The truth about the shooting came out and Verlaine was sentenced to two years of hard labor in a Belgian prison. There she wrote Crimeen amoris (Love Crime, 1884), in which Rimbaud is portrayed as a radiant but wicked angel outlining a new spiritual creed. Meanwhile, Rimbaud returned to the Roche estate, where he graduatedA season in hell.

Even more dramatic than that.last verses,A season in hellit illustrates Rimbaud's tendency to reinvent himself and redefine the direction and form of his poetry. No poet is more apt than Rimbaud to shed one skin and put on another, more easily disillusioned with his recent artistic endeavors or more willing to experiment with new forms. The year 1873 thus marks his occupation with prose poems, although there is still disagreement about the dates of origin of many individual prose poems.the illuminations(1886; translated as "Illuminations", 1953). Much of this controversy was caused by the fact that the last of the nine sections ofA season in hellseems to be a final farewell to literature, and this, added to the fact that Rimbaud abandoned his poetic career at an early age, led many commentators to seek a simple and convenient solution by posing itA season in hellis his swan song. However, it is now accepted that at least some of the poems inthe illuminationsafter those ofA season in helland they were written in 1874 and possibly 1875. The critical effort wasted in seeking a definitive solution to this chronological dispute would have been more constructively spent on examining the texts themselves. However, since the mid-1970s this situation has been rectified by excellent studies by critics such as Steve Murphy, Paule Lapeyre, André Guyaux, Nathaniel Wing, Nick Osmond, James Lawler, and Roger Little.

Rimbaud convinced his mother to payA season in hellPublished in Brussels in 1873. It is a diary of the condemned, providing information about their activities and the artistic inspiration for thelast verses. At the same time, the nine parts of the diary take an entirely new technical direction, and Délires II is even more notable for interweaving this new style of prose with excerpts from thelast versesso that both modes are dramatically emphasized.A season in hellit is a very personal account of private torture and the search for a spiritual and artistic solution; a prose style peppered with laconic formulas, which can also be seen in the one-liners ofthe illuminations; an ongoing exploration of the self, Christianity, and alternative spiritual and poetic options, often illuminated through glimpses of Rimbaud's haunting imagery; and a conscious propulsion of language towards resolution so that the verbal crisis and the personal trauma are perfectly aligned.

From the beginning, Rimbaud engages in abstraction, often personified in the Baudelairean style: "Un soir, j'ai assis la Beauté sur mes genoux" (One night I sat beauty on my lap), begins the opening section and shows the irreverence of that characterizes all his work. The death wish already seen in thelast versesand be repeated in many of the endings ofthe illuminationsit's here too. The brief statements “Le malheur a été mon dieu. Je me suis allongé dans la boue' (Misfortune was my God. I lay down in the mud) anticipates the enigmatic, breathy commentary and sibylline quality of many of the prose poems.the illuminations. One of the most important sections ofA season in hellfollows this short introductory sequence: 'Maivais sang' (Bad Blood) is an ongoing investigation into the narrator's genealogical origins, which concludes: 'J'ai toujours été de race inférieure' (I was always of inferior origin). One is reminded of the importance of the revolt in the early days.poemshow the narrator's voice seems determined to challenge all accepted notions of morality and decency; This lack of orthodoxy turns into an all-out assault on Christian values. “Mauvais sang” records the struggle of a tortured soul, first rebelling against Christian teachings and then seemingly finding grace and salvation, only to withdraw and seek fulfillment in the religions of the East or a spiritual agenda of his own that is part of the poetics. Experience. Rimbaud, best known for his delight in defying norms and conventions, impresses the reader early on with "Mauvais sang" that is aware of his "otherness", his inability to conform to the accepted orthodoxies of the consequences of Western Christian civilization. He extols "vices" like idolatry, laziness, and anger; he refuses to pay attention to the accepted wisdom that one must work for a living ("J'ai horreur de tous les métiers" [I detest all professions]); and mocks traditional family and civic values. He traces these qualities back to his earliest ancestors, associates his "bad blood" or "bad origins" with past lives as a leper or outcast, and insists on his fundamental loneliness. He ridicules the scientific "progress" of the late 19th century and rejects rationalism in favor of an internal spiritual debate. With the statement "c'est oracle, ce que je dis" (what I say is an oracle), he establishes his own form of mysticism and faith as an alternative to the Christian orthodoxies that he promotes in thepoems.

The remainder of "Mauvais sang" and the later section "Nuit de l'enfer" (Night in Hell) trace the chronicler's spiritual crisis in all its intensity and complexity. Oscillating between redemption and damnation, the poet grapples with his dilemma in an increasingly conflicted and tormented style that dramatically reflects his inner trauma. Guyaux wrote about RimbaudThe poetics of fragments(fragmentary poetics), a formula that suits the tormented style of these pages, with unanswered questions, emotionally charged outpourings, clearly sharp declarations of intent that seem unwavering but are almost immediately subverted by a new change of direction, and a prose that shines admirably through Delirium reported. Finding himself a martyr in the lineage of Joan of Arc, Rimbaud writes "Je n'ai jamais été chrétien" (I was never a Christian), but soon after enters a sequence of contemplative calm in which redemption takes place in dreamlike serenity. it is enjoyed At the end of Mauvais sang, the poet evokes his own extinction as language dissolves into a proliferation of punctuation marks and fragments of speech.

The next two sections ofA season in hella common title - "Délires I" and "Délires II", the latter with the secondary title "Alchimie du verbe". There is general agreement that "Délires I" is a commentary on Rimbaud's relationship with Verlaine; it takes the form of a religious creed in which the 'Vierge folle' (The Foolish Maiden) speaks, a thinly disguised effigy of Verlaine reflecting on 'his' tempestuous affair with the 'Epoux infernal' (Hell's Broom) Rimbaud. This confession is not just another irreverent parody of a religious source, but a highly original form of self-expression on Rimbaud's part as he views himself through the fractured and selective memory of a Confederate. Hecrazy virginhe records his inability to comprehend the complexities of his hellish companion as a mixture of compassion and cruelty, innocence and malice and ideological power and near madness. It is a love story in which the older couple is captivated by the paradoxes and mysteries of the younger one; The relationship is characterized by a messiah leading a disciple, offering new insights and experiences, and then abandoning the weaker partner just when that is the case.Virgoemotionally less prepared for the breakup. All of these elements can be linked to the stages in the development of the relationship between Rimbaud and Verlaine in 1872-1873, but the text is most significant for what it reveals about Rimbaud's contempt for the norm ("Jamais je ne travaillerai" [Never work ]); his compassion for strangers like drunks, children, and outcasts; his ideological desire ("Je n'aime pas les femmes. L'amour est à réinventer" [I don't like women. Love must be redefined]); and his need to escape from reality.

"Délires II" has a completely different complexion. It reflects the genesis oflast verses, which lovingly and ironically recalls the poet's artistic ambitions and predilections in the earlier period. No fewer than 15 sources of inspiration are listed at the beginning, including antiquated literature, ecclesiastical Latin, fairy tales, and ancient operas, all aiding in a quest, now considered "one of my follies," to create a new poetic idiom. Rimbaud combines his fondness for hallucinatory experiences with "l'hallucination des mots" (the hallucination of words) and weaves repetitions of thelast versesin his new style of prose. The reader quickly notes his preference for succinct formulas that are not limited to studyingA season in hellButthe illuminations, also: "I became a fabulous opera" (I became a fabulous opera); "I hold the system" (I hold the system); "Morality is the weakness of the brain."

While sections six and seven ofA season in hell, "L'Impossible" (The Impossible) and "L'Eclair" (Lightning) continue the spiritual and philosophical exploration of earlier parts of the work, are the penultimate and final chapters "Matin" (Morning) and "Adieu" (Leb possibly) that attracted the most detailed comment. At the end of "Matin" comes a sense of edification as the poet anticipates a glorious day of renewal and transformation, a time when an outdated religious belief will be replaced by a new spiritual awakening and the first true Noel:

"Adieu" comes at the endA season in hell, leading many to see this section as the conclusion not only to the collection but to Rimbaud's poetic career. A first reading of the text supports this interpretation, as the poet describes himself as a fallen angel and a writer who must abandon the pen and embrace a more prosaic existence, "Une belle gloire d'artiste et de conteur emportée" ( The beautiful glory of an artist). and narrator who was stripped). But behind "Adieu" there is more than this apparent renunciation of the author's life, as another laconic phrase suggests: "Il faut être absolument moderne" (We must be completely modern). It is also notable that the final paragraphs of 'Adieu' are in the future tense, which seems to herald a new redefinition of the poet and his mission.

For many criticsthe illuminationsit is Rimbaud's most important and technically demanding work. Although, in many ways, the collection maintains a clear thematic continuity with the previous verse: the idea of ​​rebellion, the supremacy of the world of the child, the fascination of the elements, the reason for the journey in search of the ideal, etc. - it is here that one is obviously in the presence of a poet attempting to experiment with new poetic structures, employing unusual and often bizarre terminology, and even exploring the creative power of punctuation, dynamically reinvented and ousted from its conventional subservient role as language support is released. These and many other ingredients have created a feeling of confusion in some readers of the poems; the critic Atle Kittang even noted the "illisibilité" (illegibility) of the collection. The poetry ofStephane Mallarmewith such secrecy, but it is an essential feature of the critical reception ofthe illuminationsthat readers have produced such varied interpretations of the poems and that some have found themselves unable to arrive at a sustained reading of certain texts. “Parade”, “Matinée d'ivress” (Drunken Morning), “Barbare” (Barbarian), “Fairy”, “H” and “Dévotion” (Devotion) are some of the poems that have caused confusion and polarized critical opinion. . .

Critics have tried to classify the poemsthe illuminations; While a definitive identification is not possible, or perhaps even desirable, some distinctive groupings can be observed among the 42 texts. A prominent source of inspiration in all of Rimbaud's poetry is the fairy tale, which is clearly linked to his concern for the child and the child's imagination. Inthe illuminations"Conte" (fairy tale), "Aube" (sunrise) and "Royauté" (royalty) are obviously based on the fairy tale structure. Each poem has a distinct narrative development, and 'Conte' and 'Royauté' involve royal characters (prince, king and queen) involved in the pursuit of happiness on a personal or public level. However, Rimbaud tends to subvert the traditional happy ending of fairy tales by fabricating an apparently happy ending and then destabilizing it. Other poems that could be loosely grouped under a common title are those that seem to form riddles, riddles, and riddles. In these poems, Rimbaud poses problems for his readers, often using the end of the text to distress, disturb, or confuse them. A master of beginnings and endings, he often uses an isolated last line to solve a problem or pose a challenge. These last lines are a very original feature ofthe illuminations: “Learned music lacks our desire” (We cannot reach the music and knowledge we long for) in “Conte”; "Only I have the key to this wild procession" in "Parade"; "This is the time ofkiller' (This is the age ofkiller) in "Matinée d'ivresse"; "C'est aussi simple qu'une phrase musicale" (It's as simple as a piece of music) in "Guerre" (War); "trouvez Hortense" (to find Hortense) in "H." Other sequences in the collection reinforce a sense of mystery and the unknown. For example, in “Enfance III” (Childhood III), “Enfance IV”, “Veillées I” (Watches I), “Solde” (Sale) and “Fairy”, a concatenation of speech units joined by the same formula of speaks confused to the reader about what is being described.

As prominent as a motif inthe illuminationsit is Rimbaud's search for the ideal urban landscape in poems such as "Ville" (City), "Villes" (Cities), "Villes II" and "Métropolitain" (Metropolitan). While "Ville" is a dreary evocation of the soulless existence of many contemporary urban agglomerations, the other lyrics are characterized by a vibrancy and exuberance that reflect the poet's desire to confront the everyday banality of life in the alternative world of endings. of the 19th century of a new and daring architecture. , populated by unexpected characters. Thus, the grayness, repeatability and bad taste of “Ville” are surpassed by the enormous proportions of “Villes”, in which a “Nabuchodonsor Norwégien” (the Norwegian Nebuchadnezzar) is one of the architects of a complex metropolis, far beyond London or Paris, which could offer . Even more dazzling is the dizzying drama enacted in Villes II, where a medley of extraordinary characters unfolds before the mind's eye to the accompaniment of a stereophonic operatic score. This poem tends to fear an unprecedented understanding, denoted by the phrases les idées des peuples (the ideas of the peoples) and la musique inconnue (the unknown music). Finally, the opening paragraph of "Métropolitain" evokes a richly colored kingdom in which another complex architectural system - crisscrossing "boulevards de cristal" (glass boulevards) - is the setting for the rise of "jeunes familles pauvres" (poor young families ) is, among other things, a mysterious group of residents whose lifestyle is enthusiastically endorsed by the poet with the words "la ville!".

The search for a new religion is a constant in Rimbaud's work, howeverthe illuminationsTake this quest to a new level. The collection is packed with gods and goddesses invented by the poet, including the mysterious Reine (Queen) or Sorcière (Witch) in 'Après le déluge' (After the Deluge), an enigmatic figure deprived of the privileged knowledge of mere mortals; the cult object in Being beautiful, a poem with many Baudelairean connections; the genius of the poem of the same name, who also appears in "Conte" as a key figure in the prince's creative rampage; the "idol" in "Enfance I"; the goddess pursued by the poet in "Aube"; the spirit referred to by "A une raison" (To a reason); and Elle (You), who appears in both "Angoisse" (Fear) and "Métropolitain." 'Après le déluge', the first poem in the collection, goes back to the Old Testament Flood to evoke new deluges that could cleanse the earth once more; in “Enfance IV”, in a litany of self-definitions, the poet writes “Je suis le saint, en prière sur la terrasse” (I am the saint, I pray on the terrace) and links this identity to the sea of ​​Palestine; in the first part of "Vies" (Life) he refers to a "Brahman" (Brahmin) who explained the Book of Proverbs to him; and "Matinée d'ivresse" is grounded in the imperative to transcend the tired Christian dichotomy of good and evil and develop a new religious faith.

The person of the traveler is one of Rimbaud's preferred identities, and the motif of the journey is a central element in works such as Le Bateau ivre. Inthe illuminationsthis motif is reconstituted and reinvented in many ways. The 'pieton de la grand'route par les bois nains' (Walker on the country road between dwarf forests) in Enfance IV anticipates the nomadic tendency that will lead the prince on his pilgrimage to 'Conte', inciting the boy to pursue the goddess in 'Aube' and introduces the short text 'Départ' as a celebration of dynamism and change over the static and familiar. Other examples include the wandering poet and his strange accomplice Henrika, who wander the outskirts of an industrial city in 'Ouvriers' (Workers) but yearn for an 'autre monde' (another world); the moving circus company in “ornières” (routes); and the miserable couple in "ass', looking for 'le lieu et la formule' (the place and the formula). In poems such as "Nocturne vulgaire" (Ordinary Night) and "Barbare", Rimbaud describes imaginative journeys or drug-induced "trips" that take him and the reader to the limits of the psyche. In "Nocturne vulgaire" the reader is taken on a most unusual journey, involving a destabilization of the contours of the world known as a prelude to a descent in a "carrosse" (carriage) that transports the poet to an "ailleurs" who . .. turns out to be banal and unsatisfactory. Then a flurry of green and blue brings the carriage ride to an abrupt halt, allowing for a much more satisfying adventure in the elemental ferment of the storm, one of Rimbaud's favorite contexts in which a mixture of creation and destruction takes place:

This pattern of creative immersion in the elements, including earth, air, and fire, as well as water, is seen in many of the endings.the illuminations, such as "Angoisse", "Soir historique" (Historical evening) and "Métropolitain". "Barbare" contains a particularly convincing example of the function of elemental imagery in Rimbaud's prose poem. As the title suggests, "Barbare" seeks to challenge and transcend all that is conventional and familiar. This goal is accomplished in two ways: through its captivating and mysterious imagery, which evokes yet another bizarre journey of the imagination; and in his unprecedented linguistic experiments, which bring one to the brink of verbal dissolution. From the first line, "Bien après les jours et les saisons, et les être et les pays" (Long after the days and the seasons and the creatures and the lands), it is clear that Rimbaud is determined to sever ties with the regular time. and space as a prelude to his departure into an unexplored realm of the imagination. Much ink has been spilled in attempts to 'decipher' the 'pavillon en viande saignante' (banner of bleeding flesh) that binds the poem together in a cyclical pattern due to its triple use in the text; But just as striking is the concatenation of elemental images that run through the piece: arctic seas, hell, icy blasts, flames, foam, blocks of ice, volcanoes. One passage is notable for its dense compression of ingredients drawn from each of the four elements: "—les feux a la pluie du vent de diamants jetée par le coeur terrestrial éternellement carbonisé pour nous." through the center of the earth, always carbonized for us.—) Here the water(regeneration), Feuer(fire, charred), Luft(Ventilation)and land(earthly heart)merged to record an experience of the Eternal. "L'Eternity" in thelast versesand "Drunken Morning" inthe illuminationssimilarly relating a sense of the eternal to a fusion of elemental opposites; In Barbare, however, this fusion is brought about by Rimbaud's bold use of language, punctuation, and poetic form.

Rimbaud's search for a new poetic language is the defining and enduring aspect of his artistic career. His essential thematic concerns - the voyage of discovery, the world of the child, the phenomenon of revolt - develop in conjunction with his ambition to redefine the poetic word, freeing it from the shackles of paralyzing forms and rules and achieving a much more meaningful meaning. flexible and a more flexible means of expression, free from inhibitions and outdated conventions and characterized by a vitality and an exciting “otherness” that allows endless innovation and surprise. The poet's challenge in 'Ce qu'on dit au poèt à propos de fleurs' to become a 'juggler', delivering shocks and revelations to the reader, is an apt characterization of Rimbaud's entire enterprise.the illuminationsrepresents the culmination of this process: the collection is peppered with all sorts of linguistic discoveries, from foreign language terms like Germanwaterfall(Waterfall) in "Aube" and the English title "Being Beauteous" to the very unusualBaouin "devotion". The collection is also notable for its proliferation of hyphens, intriguing capital letters, and striking italics. The strange punctuation fragments the texts in a fascinating way, creating unexpected rhythms and internal arrangements, emphasizing individual words and phrases, and twisting in connection with strange and unusual terms.the illuminationsa stage for all kinds of linguistic surprises. Among these surprises is the large number of enigmatic proper names in the collection -Queen, Witch, Bluebeard, Prince, Genie, Elle, Hottentot, Moloch, Proverbs, Mabs, Solymes, Damascus, Helena,etc The puzzle of the poem "H" invites the reader to think about the properties of the capital letterH, some of which are tantalizingly offered in the poem itself with the proper name Hortense and the wordhydrogen, reminding the reader that H is the atomic symbol for hydrogen. This text opposes author and reader, Rimbaud hides his secrets and mocks the reader so that he tries to discover them. This situation is commonthe illuminationsin poems such as "Parade", "Solde" and "Dévotion". In "Vies" the poet presents himself as an oracular figure who has to make revelations:

I would show you untold riches. I'm looking at the story of the treasures you found. I see the rest! My wisdom is as despised as chaos. What's my nothing in front of the numbness that awaits you?

(I would show you the untold riches. I see the story of the treasures you unearthed. I can see the continuation! My wisdom is as despised as chaos. What is my emptiness compared to the wonder that awaits you?)

The key term is here.Chaos, a traditional pejorative word to which Rimbaud has characteristically given a positive connotation.the illuminationsit is a realization of that positive state of "chaos" so desperately desired by its creator: a flux in which language disintegrates and assembles into a unity that transcends what came before.

Rimbaud gave up poetry at the age of 21 after writing it for only five years. 1875-1876 he traveled to England, Germany, Italy, and Holland; He joined the Dutch army but left in Sumatra. In 1876 he settled briefly in Vienna, then traveled to Egypt, Java and Cyprus, where he worked as a foreman in a quarry. In 1880 he traveled to Ethiopia as a representative of the French coffee merchant Alfred Bardey, based in Aden (now part of Yemen); Rimbaud was one of the first Europeans to visit the country. He stayed there as a trader and explorer. Scholars have long been fascinated by the fact that Rimbaud's extensive correspondence from Africa to France contains no reference to poetry, but is informed by utilitarian and commercial considerations related to his business activities; the phrase "Rimbaud's silence" is used to denote poetry's abrupt departure from him. However, his fame as a poet waned during this period whenPaul Verlainecontains some of his poemsEl poeta maldito: Tristan Corbière; Arthur Rimbaud; Stephane Mallarme(The cursed poets: Tristan Corbiere; Arthur Rimbaud; Stephane Mallarme) in 1884 and publishedthe illuminationstwo years later. In February 1891, Rimbaud developed a tumor on his right knee; He returned to France for treatment and had his leg amputated at a Marseille hospital. He returned to the farm in Roche to recuperate, but his health continued to deteriorate. He returned to Marseille where he was diagnosed with cancer. He died in the hospital there on November 10, 1891; his sister Isabelle, who was with him at the time, claimed that she had converted to the Catholic faith before his death. He was buried in Charleville.