Arthur Rimbaud

Rimbaud, Arthur 

Born Oct. 20, 1854, in Charleville; died Nov. 10, 1891, in Marseille. French poet.

Rimbaud grew up in a petit bourgeois environment. He studied in a lycée until 1871 but did not graduate. His poetry was influenced by T. de Banville, V. Hugo, and especially C. Baudelaire. Rimbaud sarcastically attacked the petite bourgeoisie in “The Assessors,” the Second Empire in “Caesar’s Rage” and religion in “The Punishment of Tartuffe” and “Evil.” He expressed hopes that society would become reorganized under the Republic in “The Blacksmith.”

Rimbaud’s subsequent disillusionment with the government of “national betrayal” brought on a personal crisis early in 1871. Periods of despair and ostentatious cynicism alternated with dreams of the supernatural power of a clairvoyant poet who could show humanity the way to a harmonious world order. The Paris Commune of 1871 gave Rimbaud renewed faith in social progress. He attempted to take a personal part in the struggle, and wrote such masterpieces of French revolutionary poetry as “Parisian Battle Song,” “Paris Is Filled With People Again,” and “The Hands of Jeanne-Marie” (1871). His poetry became imbued with realistic imagery, psychological insights, and satire, as seen in “The Seven-year-old Poets,” “Poor People in Church,” “The Sisters of Charity,” and the satirical verses in the Album Zutique. The onset of reaction had a detrimental effect on Rimbaud’s emotional state and his development as a poet.

Rimbaud’s transition to symbolism was seen in “The Drunken Ship” and the “Sonnet on Vowels.” During his symbolist period, he wrote Last Verses (1872) and the prose poems The Illuminations (written 1872–73, published 1886). The book A Season in Hell (1873), which combined a tragic stylistic incoherence with a devastating critique of symbolism, prepared the way for the poetic realism of the 20th century.

In the second half of the 1870’s, Rimbaud abandoned literature and after a long period of wandering was obliged in 1880 to become an agent of a commercial firm in Ethiopia.

During the 20th century, Rimbaud’s works have evoked a polemic between realists and modernists. The best of his poetic tradition influenced G. Apollinaire, P. Eluard, and the poets of the Resistance.

WORKS

Oeuvres [2nd ed.]. Paris [1964].
Oeuvres. Paris [1966].
In Russian translation:
Stikhotvoreniia. Moscow, 1960.
[“Stikhi.”] In Ten’ derev’ev: Stikhi zarubezhnykh poetov v per. I. Erenburga. Moscow, 1969.

REFERENCES

Livshits, B. K. Ot romantikov do siurrealistov. Leningrad [1934].
Balashov, N. “Rembo.” In Istoriia frantsuzskoi literatury, vol. 3. Moscow, 1959.
Balashov, N. “Blez Sandrar i problema poeticheskogo realizma XX v.” In B. Sandrar, Po vsemu miru. Moscow, 1974.
Etiemble, R., and Y. Gauclère. Rimbaud. Paris, 1950.
Fowlie, W. Rimbaud: [A critical study]. Chicago-London [1967].
Gascar, P. Rimbaud et la Commune. [Paris, 1971.]
Europe, 1973, no. 529–30. (Issue dedicated to Rimbaud.)

N. I. BALASHOV