Neep's Reviews > Complete Works

Poetry has always been kinda dull to me. Some poetry is pretty, but I've never really seen the point to it.

And then I discovered Rimbaud.

The thing about Rimbaud is that you can't read his poetry without knowing at least some of his backstory. His religious upbringing. His frequent rebellions and escapes. His affair with Paul Verlaine. And then, most amazing of all, the fact that he stopped writing poetry before he hit 21.

This collection is of everything that Rimbaud wrote, and he wrote it all at an age that most would consider to still be childhood. A majority of these poems, however, are anything but immature.

Really, I bought this book for A Season In Hell. I wasn't disappointed. "First Delirium" is heartbreaking. "Second Delirium" is beautiful. And with such quotable lines as "I turned silences and nights into words. What was unutterable, I wrote down. I made the whirling world stand still", it's no wonder it's his most famous work.

I then started reading his other poems. Just a few, here and there. The thing I do when I'm reading is if I find a line that stands out to me, I put a sticky note on the corner of the page. I soon realised I was putting notes on nearly every other page. That's just how fantastic his words are.

And yes, I realise this is just one translation of Rimbaud's work, but I can't help but feel that no matter who translated Rimbaud's poems, the beauty and truth of his words would still stand out to me. He's just that fucking good.