Rimbaud: Poems (Everyman's Library Pocket Poets) [Hardcover]

Arthur Rimbaud (Author)

Book Description

Series: Everyman's Library Pocket Poets | Publication Date: April 12, 1994

The Everyman's Library Pocket Poets hardcover series is popular for its compact size and reasonable price which does not compromise content. Poems: Rimbaud contains selections from Rimbaud's work, including over 100 poems, selected prose, "Letter to Paul Demeny, May 15, 1871," and an index of first lines.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French

From the Inside Flap

The Everyman's Library Pocket Poets hardcover series is popular for its compact size and reasonable price which does not compromise content. Poems: Rimbaud contains selections from Rimbaud's work, including over 100 poems, selected prose, "Letter to Paul Demeny, May 15, 1871," and an index of first lines.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Everyman's Library (April 12, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 067943321X
• ISBN-13: 978-0679433217
• Product Dimensions: 4.4 x 0.8 x 6.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,000,911 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful vision of youth in the mind of a genius, May 11, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Rimbaud: Poems (Everyman's Library Pocket Poets) (Hardcover)

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.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Poetry & Prose: An honest vision of a tortured life., December 2, 2003

By 

girldiver "Enjoy!" (tangled up in blue.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rimbaud: Poems (Everyman's Library Pocket Poets) (Hardcover)

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 Eternity

I 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.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Youth can be a season in hell, July 13, 2006

By 

Guillermo Maynez (Mexico, Distrito Federal Mexico) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rimbaud: Poems (Everyman's Library Pocket Poets) (Hardcover)

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.