Rimbaud
Hallucinatory work of French poet Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud strongly influenced the surrealists.
With known transgressive themes, he influenced modern literature and arts, prefiguring. He started writing at a very young age and excelled as a student but abandoned his formal education in his teenage years to run away to Paris amidst the Franco-Prussian war. During his late adolescence and early adulthood, he produced the bulk of his literary output. After assembling his last major work,
Illuminations
, Rimbaud completely stopped writing literature at age 20 years in 1874.
A hectic, violent romantic relationship, which lasted nearly two years at times, with fellow poet Paul Verlaine engaged Rimbaud, a libertine, restless soul. After his retirement as a writer, he traveled extensively on three continents as a merchant and explorer until his death from cancer. As a poet, Rimbaud is well known for his contributions to symbolism and, among other works, for
A Season in Hell
, a precursor to modernist literature.
“I am alone in possessing a key to this barbarous sideshow.”
“I am the saint at prayer on the terrace like the peaceful beasts that graze down to the sea of Palestine.I am the scholar of the dark armchair. Branches and rain hurl themselves at the windows of my library.I am the pedestrian of the highroad by way of the dwarf woods; the roar of the sluices drowns my steps. I can see for a long time the melancholy wash of the setting sun.I might well be the child abandoned on the jetty on its way to the high seas, the little farm boy following the lane, its forehead touching the sky.The paths are rough. The hillocks are covered with broom. The air is motionless. How far away are the birds and the springs! It can only be the end of the world ahead.”
“A thousand Dreams within me softly burn”
“J'ai tendu des cordes de clocher a clocher; des guirlandes de fenetre a fenetre; des chaines d'or d'etoile a etoile, et je danse.”
“Je est un autre.”