Dear readers, I return to the continued series of the founders of modern poetry. To sum up: after having tackled the initiating movements (Romanticism, Parnasianism, Symbolism, etc.) and their main exponents, we come to the considered "father" of poetic modernity, Charles Baudelaire (see) and Paul Verlaine (see). We enter with this post to consider Arthur Rimbaud, his work and capital contributions to modern poetry. I must advance that Rimbaud's work radically changed poetry, so that for readers of poetry (amateur or specialized), and even more so if they are writers, I believe that the reading of his work is indispensable.

I will try to present a biographical sketch of Rimbaud, aware that his life - complex and difficult - is essential to approach his poetry.

Arthur Rimbaud was born in a French village, Charleville, in 1854 and died in Marseille in 1891. His father was an infantry captain, so he was estranged from his wife and five children. After the birth of the last daughter, Captain Rimbaud abandons his family and never returns.

It is said that the mother was a rigid person with both the education of her children and their behavior, which may have led to rejection. Rimbaud is known to have stood out at the Charleville municipal school as a brilliant student, but already with feelings of rebellion.

In 1870, thanks to his teacher, Georges Izambard, he became acquainted with important literary works, such as The Miserable, by Victor Hugo. His first poem, "Orphans' Christmas bonuses", published in the magazine Revue pour Tous, is recognized that year, when he was 15 years old. The poetic influence at that time was Parnasian; he therefore asked Théodore de Banville, one of the main representatives of Parnasianism, by letter, to publish three of his poems, which were never included in the movement's magazine.

He wanted to go to Paris and experience the revolutionary airs of the time, and thus put aside the problematic relations with his mother, which were worsened by the rebellious nature of the young Rimbaud, who, it is said, "went out into the streets of Charleville carrying posters of "Die God"". During this time Rimbaud ran away from home several times to reach Paris.

_{Portrait of Arthur Rimbaud by Jean-Louis Forain, 1872. Source}

As is to be expected in a rebellious spirit, his poetic writing distanced itself from Romantic and Parnassian poetry and identified itself with that of Charles Baudelaire, whom he praised as "the king of poets".

Having no answer for the publication of his poems, Rimbaud addressed two letters to Paul Verlaine, who was a recognized figure among Parnasians and Symbolists, with poems, among which is his famous "The Drunk Ship". Verlaine was surprised by the young poet's talent, invited him to come to Paris and sent him a train ticket. Rimbaud, attending the invitation, traveled and stayed with Verlaine and his wife, who was seventeen years old and pregnant.

In Paris he was very well received by French writers, including Victor Hugo, and even lived with some of them. But his provocative behaviour, already at the age of 17, caused him problems. Rimbaud lived a dissipated life, consuming wormwood and hashish. His behavior as a "terrible child" produced scandals in the literary elite. While he continued to write his avant-garde poems.

Rimbaud began a stormy love affair with Verlaine, which led him to abandon his wife and young son. They traveled to London in September 1872, where they lived amidst much poverty. The relationship between them deteriorated. In 1873 Verlaine fled to Brussels, but was followed by Rimbaud. In the midst of heated discussions, Verlaine, in a state of drunkenness, shot Rimbaud in the wrist. Verlaine was arrested and, aggravated by moral considerations about the relationship between two men and the wife's accusations, despite Rimbaud's withdrawal of the complaint, was sentenced to two years in prison.

_{Fragment of the painting "A corner of the table" (1872) by Henri Fantin-Latour, where Verlaine (almost bald) and Rimbaud Source}

Rimbaud returned to Charleville and confined himself to the family farm to write A season in Hell, recognized as one of the foundational works of modern poetry. In 1874 he returned to London and finished writing his Illuminations, another key work of modernity.

After abandoning writing, Rimbaud traveled throughout Europe, mainly on foot. In 1876, he enlisted as a soldier in the Dutch colonial army to travel to Indonesia. Then he traveled to Cyprus, and in 1880 he settled in Yemen, as an employee of a major agency. There he had several native lovers. In 1884 he left that job and became a merchant in Harar, present-day Ethiopia. He made a small fortune as an arms dealer, until his right knee developed an ailment that developed into cancer. He returned to France in 1891, where his leg was amputated. He died, six months later, at the age of thirty-seven.

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General aspects about Rimbaud

A young provincial, but with a rebelliousness and precocious lucidity, who wrote his transcendent work in just four years, and then withdrew and became completely mute, could be a very tight (and perhaps unjust) synthesis of Rimbaud. As scholars like Balakian say, Rimbaud was a "man of the street," "out in the open," who "prefers bright sunrises and luminosity. Yet concealment ended up being his destiny.

_{Cover of the first edition of Rimbaud's Poésies complètes. Source}

In life his work was kept in an incomplete ignorance. His impulse was due to the diffusion that meant the edition of his complete poetry in 1892, thanks to Verlaine. However, the value of Rimbaud's writing remained unknown until 1920, when it was rediscovered by the Surrealists.

We will continue the discussion on Rimbaud in my next post

References

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Rimbaud
Balakian, Anna (1969). The symbolist movement. Spain: Edit. Guadarrama.
Todó, Lluís (1987). The Symbolism. Spain. Edit. Montesinos.

Written by @josemalavem