Go Rimbaud

1853 Arthur Rimbaud (d. November 10, 1891), French poet ('Poésies'; 'Le bateau ivre'; Illuminations) and lover of poet Paul Verlaine, who shot him and was sentenced to two years in prison. Rimbaud's main work was written in his youth; he published his first poem at age 16.

Rimbaud wrote Une Saison en Enfer (A Season in Hell) in prose, widely regarded as one of the pioneering instances of modern Symbolist writing.

The precocious boy-poet of French Symbolism wrote some of the most remarkable poetry and prose of the 19th Century before he abandoned writing at the age of only 20 and took up gun-running in in Harar, Ethiopia. Rimbaud developed right knee synovitis which degenerated into a carcinoma and the state of his health forced him to return to France on May 9, 1891, where his leg was amputated on May 27. He died later that year, in Marseille, aged 37.

Rimbaud influenced many artists who followed, including: French poets in general, the Surrealists, the Beat Poets, Henry Miller, Anais Nin, William S Burroughs, Bob Kaufman, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Hugo Pratt, Mário Cesariny de Vasconcelos, Sérgio Godinho, Klaus Kinski, Jack Kerouac, Philippe Sollers, Patti Smith, Bruce Chatwin, Penny Rimbaud, Jim Morrison, Bob Dylan, Richard Hell, Joe Strummer, John Lennon ...

Categories: france, poetry