Rimbaud

The Evil

While the grapeshot red spittles
Whistle all day through blue-sky infinity;
While, near the King who mocks at them,
Scarlet or green battalions crumble all together in the fire;

While a dreadful madness grinds,
And makes a smoking heap of a hundred thousand men;
— Poor dead! In the summer, in the grass, in your joy,
Nature! O! You who saintlily made these men!... —

— There is a God, who laughs at damask altar-cloths,
At incense, at great gold chalices;
Who dozes off at hosannas lullaby,

And wakes up, when the mothers, crouched
In anguish, and crying beneath their old black bonnets,
Give Him a big coin tied up in their handkerchief!

1870 was a transitional year for the 16 years old young man:

• May 24: Letter to Theodore de Banville, author and newspaper critic. Rimbaud presented him three poems, one of which was Sensation:

  “... In two years, may be one, I will be in Paris.”

• July 19: France declaration of war to Prussia.
• August 6: Once more, Rimbaud won the first academic prizes (Latin and French speeches, Latin verses, Latin and Greek versions, religious education, recitation, excellence) as well as geography and history distinctions.
• August 29: While running away towards Paris, Rimbaud was arrested and put in jail for having took the train without a ticket. He was released thanks to his rhetoric teacher.
• September 4: Proclamation of the Republic in Paris.
• September 19: Beginning of the siege of Paris.
• December: Rimbaud passed some of his works to a newspaper of Ardennes under 'Jean Baudry' pseudonym.
• December 28: Paris was bombed.

It's during that year - rich in events - that Rimbaud wrote his poem le mal (The Evil), published in Le Cahier de Douai. It is still of actuality...

Locate Arthur Rimbaud in history.