illuminations

Arthur Rimbaud's 1874 Illuminations include some autobiographical allusions to his voyant (visionary) period, which began in 1869; but Illuminations is neither a confession nor an apology. Its several dozen variously short prose and two free-verse poems transcend prose grammar by allowing their words to drift away from their dictionary definitions. Ever-elusive, relentless, overflowing with sinuous cadences, Illuminations transcends Une Saison en Enfer as Une Saison en Enfer had transcended Rimbaud's verses. Some scholars even propose that some of the Illuminations may have been written after Une Saison, which supposedly marked his farewell to literature.

The Illuminations contain so many subtle symbols and allusions that something new can be realized with each new reading. There is an inexplicable grace in its opaque impressionism and its rhythms. It never ceases to be a dazzling spectacle, and even its most mundane passages are imbued with a superreality. Admittedly these works do not obtain their full effect in isolation: Starkie's biography has been the standard introduction in English since 1961; still, unlike free verse, lyrical prose poetry all but began and ended with Rimbaud's Illuminations. As an adolescent he expanded the vocabulary and diversified the meters of French poetry; as a young adult he became unique in world literature.

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