Arthur Rimbaud (20 October 1854 – 10 November 1891 / Charleville, Ardennes)
Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud was a French poet. Born in Charleville, Ardennes, he produced his best known works while still in his late teens—Victor Hugo described him at the time as "an infant Shakespeare"—and he gave up creative writing altogether before the age of 20. As part of the decadent movement, Rimbaud influenced modern literature, music and art. He was known to have been a libertine and a restless soul, travelling extensively on three continents before his death from cancer just after his 37th birthday.
Family and childhood (1854–1861)
Arthur Rimbaud was born into the provincial middle class of ... more »
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Popular Poems
- A Winter Dream
- After The Flood
- Anguish
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- At The Green Inn, Five In The Evening (A...
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- Blackcurrant River
- Bottom
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- Childhood
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Quotations
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The poet makes himself a seer by a long, prodigious, and rational disordering of all the senses. Every form of love, of suffering, of madness; he searches himself, he consumes all the poisons in him, ...
Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891), French poet. Letter, May 15, 1871. Collected Poems, ed. Oliver Bernard (1962). -
''I is another.''
Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891), French poet. Letter, May 13, 1871. Collected Poems, ed. Oliver Bernard (1962). -
There shall be poets! When woman's unmeasured bondage shall be broken, when she shall live for and through herself, manhitherto detestablehaving let her go, she, too, will be poet! Woman w...
Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891), French poet. Letter, May 15, 1871. Collected Poems, ed. Oliver Bernard (1962). -
For a long time I ... found the celebrities of modern painting and poetry ridiculous. I loved absurd pictures, fanlights, stage scenery, mountebanks' backcloths, inn-signs, cheap colored prints; unfas...
Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891), French poet. "Délires II: Alchimie du Verbe," Une Saison en Enfer (1874).

If I hadn't read the beat poets I may never of heard Rimbaud, I thank them for that. Its also possible that if I had not read either I may not write my own.
If u r looking for a true rebel..a constant disclaimer of world orthodoxy then rimbaud is the closest you can get................ morever he was young, vibrant and too close to dream than reality.........unashamed of his thoughts, profane at times but nonetheless a genius who wrote with no qualm whatsoever!