Arthur Rimbaud – A Child Prodigy And Literary Wunderkind

The word literature connotes  ‘letters’. It is on account of this that scholarly men are referred to as men of letters. Reading of literature is significant to all of us, for it gives precious intuitions to various aspects of life. It inculcates in us the power of reasoning and analysis.

The literary works of great authors have thoroughly affected us since times antediluvian. So here we are to canvass one of the great authors who was indeed a child prodigy and a literary wonderkid.

Arthur Rimbaud, an imponderable and itinerant poet, was the prodigy of literature who wrote all of his poetry in a time span of less than five years.

Life of Arthur Rimbaud

▪Arthur was born in France in 1854. He had a peripatetic and a volatile character since childhood. He was a meteoric wild child who had a plethora of ideas in his head.

▪In college he became a very successful student, leading his class in all subjects except mathematics and science; In fact, His school students commented on his ability to absorb large amounts of material. He won eight first prizes at French academic competitions in 1869, including the Prize for Religious Education, and won seven awards the following year.

Inculcation of poetic interest in Arthur Rimbaud

▪His father succeeded in instilling in the young scholar a love for Greek, Latin and French classical literature, and first encouraged the boy to write original poems in both French and Latin. Rimbaud’s first poem was Les Étrennes des orphelins.

▪When Rimbaud was 15, he showed efficacious maturity as a poet. The first poem he showed to Izambard, his private tutor, was named “Ophélie”. It would later be included in anthologies. Moreover, It is often reckoned as one of Rimbaud’s three or four best poems.

▪After the Franco-German War, Rimbaud started taking an acute interest in politics by July 1870. later on After the war’s outburst, the school in Charleville closed. This event was marked as the end of his formal education.

▪The war served to escalate Rimbaud’s contumaciousness. The elements of scatology and profanity in his poetry grew highly intense. Even more, his tone became more rasping and the images became more antic and even illusory.

Arthur Rimbaud‘s “Illuminations”

▪In 1874, Arthur returned to London with the poet Germain Nouveau. They were in accomodation for three months when he put together his ingenious “Illuminations”, a collection of prose poems. Though he in due course, he did not see it through publications, it got published in 1886, without his prior knowledge.

▪In the Illuminations, Arthur accomplished the height of his originality. It clearly reflects the form which best suited his concise and abstruse style.

▪He plundered the prose poem of its narrative, episodic, and descriptive content. Moreover, He used words for their reminiscent and clannish power, bereaving them of their dictionary or logical meaning.

▪The serried musical patterns, visual pyrotechnics,  and the calmative rhythms of the poems work in antithesis with Rimbaud’s playful proficiency of syndicated syntax, ambivalence, historical- linguistics and literary references, and multilingual puns.

▪The innovative use of language in “Illuminations” was a unique achievement which greatly influenced the ensuing development of French poetry.

Arthur Rimbaud’s Other Famous Works

His famous works are as follows :-

1.)Poetry Le Bateau ivre in the year 1871.

2.)Une Saison en Enfer dans les années 1873.

3.)Les Illuminations in the year 1886.

4.)Poemes in the year 1891.

It is, therefore, without any hesitation we can say, that Arthur Rimbaud was an incredible poet with immense capabilities to frolic with words.

Also Read : The Child Prodigy Known As ‘Human Computer’ – Shakuntala Devi