Rimbaud: Poems: Edited by Peter Washington

This is the work of the original, the authentic, the one and only "enfant terrible". A powerful and magical ability to create images at the same time beautiful, repulsive and apocalyptic. The demoniac genius of Rimbaud shows up since his first poems and in his prose, notably the included "A Season in Hell". Rimbaud incarnates rage, suffering, the rebellious nature of every youth who is at the same time intelligent and sensitive. He gives and takes no quarter. He is not a complaining grunge type. He is mad at the gods, and human to the bone. He makes subsequent rock stars look like sissies. He travels dangerous ground and comes through very much alive and kicking. Some of my favorites: "Sun and Flesh", "Ophelie", "Venus Anadyomene", "Sleeping in the Valley", "The Crows", "Seven-year poets", of course the mesmerizing "The Drunken Boat", "What is that for us, my heart" (a dark presage of terrorism), "Memoire", and the wonderful "Comedy of Thirst", which includes these wonderful verses: Peut-etre un soir m'attends ou je boirai tranquille en quelque vieille ville et mourrai plus content: puisque je suis patient.

Arthur Rimbaud's Poems and Prose speak a dark truth of life. Rimbaud does not shield you from the realities of his time or his life. He writes of all the things he encountered as a child, soldier, poet, lover, and vagabond. His poems are of his youth and his prose are of his life. The poems do not depict a romantic childhood but of one with struggle and cynism that he carried all his life. To read his poems is to experience his youthful assurance that the world was flawed. You will be affected by his dark perception of the world and awed by his realistic and symbolic style.As for his prose, he writes of a tortured existence and bohemian lifestyle steeped in a wild reality that was his life.My favorit passages from this book of poems and prose:"One evening, I sat Beauty in my lap. - And I found her bitter. - And I cursed her." from A Season in Hell"It is found again. What? Eternity. It is the sea, Gone with the sun." from EternityI very much enjoyed this book and thought Rimbaud changed modern poetry and writing and brought us into a new realistic age in writing. He opened the doors for some of the great 20th century writers.

Rimbaud is one of the most impressive poets of all time, never compromising himself to the drudgery of the world around him. If at any point in your life you have begun to feel like a free spirit, read Rimbaud's youthful verse and be prepared to percieve life transcedentally. Within his surrealistic vision you will find the vulnerability of weakness with the demonic anger of a pocessed soul. There are poems that stir every feeling of what it's like to be young, and free and drunk on the pleasures of life. A true poet.

We are not serious when we are 17...but are we more serious at 18 or later? He was so young, so sensitive; he wanted to find life, find a place, the place.Like Baudelaire, he was searching his own way, but not in a dark state of mind. The keywords to go through his works are: rebellion,youth and innocence...He is sometimes cruel but I think it's to hide his fragility...I like his childish way of creating; direct but full of hidden love he couldn't give.Read him and you'll probably find that we are not serious at 17 , but that although he found himself not serious, he was so intelligent and receptive to world despite his innocence...