“Poetry will no longer set the rhythm of action; it will be in advance of it.”

Original: La poésie ne rythmera plus l’action; elle sera en avant. — Rimbaud gives poetry a prophetic role, imagining it as something that anticipates rather than merely reflects change. · Letter to Paul Demeny, 15 May 1871 (French)

• Action
• Future
• Poetry

“You are a teacher again. You told me that one owes a duty to Society; you are part of the teaching profession: you are keeping to the beaten track.”

Original: Vous revoilà professeur. On se doit à la Société, m’avez-vous dit; vous faites partie des corps enseignants: vous roulez dans la bonne ornière. — Rimbaud attacks conformity and the respectable social roles he believed constrained creative freedom. · Letter to Georges Izambard, 13 May 1871 (French)

• Convention
• Freedom
• Rebellion

“The books have not reached me because, I am sure, someone appropriated them in my place.”

Original: Les livres ne me sont pas parvenus, parce que, j’en suis sûr, quelqu’un se les sera appropriés à ma place. — Books remained important practical possessions even after Rimbaud had abandoned his literary career. · Letter to his family from Aden, 22 September 1880 (French)

• Books
• Exile
• Reading