On October 20, 1854, in Charleville, northeastern France, Arthur Rimbaud was born - the poet who, in a few years, changed the idea of what a poem could be. He wrote almost everything he left in the history of literature before he turned 21, and then turned his back on poetry and spent the last decade of his life as a traveling salesman.
Rimbaud was a brilliant student and began writing poetry in his early teens. His first poem was published when he was 16. In 1870 and 1871, he ran away from home several times, traveling to Paris and Belgium, and wandering through a period of war, political upheaval, and personal rebellion against his strict family.
„I am another“ – the manifesto of a young poet
In May 1871, Rimbaud sent two letters that later became known as the Letters of the Seer. In them, he rejected the traditional idea of the poet as someone who simply describes his own feelings and insisted that poetry should reach unknown states of consciousness.
This short, deliberately grammatically incorrect phrase became one of the most recognizable aphorisms of modern literature. For Rimbaud, the poet should not close himself off in the usual "I", but shake up language, the senses and the very idea of reality.
In 1871, he met Paul Verlaine, already an established poet. Verlaine invited him to Paris, and the two began a stormy relationship that led to the breakup of Verlaine's marriage and to trips between France, Belgium and England. Their relationship ended dramatically in July 1873 in Brussels, when Verlaine shot Rimbaud in the wrist and was sentenced to two years in prison.
Books written in a few years
In his short literary period, Rimbaud created "The Drunken Ship" - a long poem that presents the world through the eyes of a ship adrift. He also wrote "Voices", a sonnet in which he associates vowels with colors, as well as "A Season in Hell", published in 1873. The book is at once a poetic prose, a confession and a summary of his creative and personal rebellion.
"Illuminations" is associated with his last creative period. The collection contains prose poems and texts in which the plot gives way to sudden images, sounds and associations. Rimbaud's experiments were later cited as an important source for symbolism and surrealism.
From Poetry to Africa
Around the age of 20 or 21, Rimbaud ceased his literary activity. The decision is one of the most mysterious in the history of literature: the young author, who dreams of creating a new language, simply stops writing.
Travels through Europe, Java, Cyprus, Aden and Abyssinia follow. Rimbaud works as a supervisor, clerk and merchant, and in Africa he trades in coffee, weapons and other goods. His letters from this period are devoted mainly to money, routes, goods and practical difficulties, rather than literature.
Meanwhile, Paul Verlaine publishes his poems and helps his name reach a wider audience. Rimbaud returns to France only when his health deteriorates severely. He dies in Marseille on November 10, 1891, at the age of 37.
His life lasted only 37 years, but his literary image remains divided between two extremes – the boy who wants to upset all the senses, and the man who leaves poetry to seek another world on the roads of Africa.
Sources: history.com, theguardian.com, poetryfoundation.org