“Rimbaud held the keys to a mystical language that I devoured even as I could not fully decipher it.” 
-Patti Smith
Introducing L&#8217;enfant terrible of French verse: Arthur Rimbaud
Arthur Rimbaud’s grave in Charleville-Mézières, France is often strewn with letters, of adoration or confession, empty absinthe bottles, and used up cigarette packets, left against the white marble obelisk by his fans and admirers. Rimbaud’s legacy of connecting to the wild abandon of youth and the burning passion of being alive is as active, if not more, today than it was even when he was alive. 
Born on October 20, 1854 in Charleville, France, Rimbaud’s short but powerful life was steeped in affair, passion, and turmoil. He began his writing career in 1870, though like many writers, his life was plagued with financial issues and burdens. He wrote to fellow poet Paul Verlaine, and in 1871, left his small town to live with Verlaine and his wife. Thus began a torrid and colorful affair between the two men. By 1872, Rimbaud had returned to Charleville after causing a significant rift in Verlaine’s marriage. During this time, he wrote Derniers Vers (pub. 1886), a collection of verse poems in a starkly experimental style, reminiscent of Verlaine’s own poetic modality at the time. 
Soon, however, Verlaine and Rimbaud reconnected, and their torrential relationship continued. After a particularly violent argument with Verlaine in 1873, in which he shot Rimbaud in the hand, Rimbaud returned to the countryside and produced the bulk of Une Saison en Enfer (1873). By 1875, at the age of 21, Rimbaud had completed all the poetic work he would accomplish in his lifetime, and effectively retired from writing poetry. He spent his remaining years trying to break free of his financial constraints through several odd jobs, including gun-running in Africa, and a brief stint in the Dutch military that ended in desertion. These jobs brought him all over the globe. 
Even after Rimbaud put down his pen, his poems circulated in the literary scene by the hand of Verlaine, who took it upon himself to publish Rimbaud’s work. In 1884, Verlaine included some of Rimbaud’s poetry in the collection Les Poètes maudits: Tristan Corbière; Arthur Rimbaud; Stéphane Mallarmé. Then, two years later in 1886, he published what is arguably Rimbaud’s most well known work today, Les Illuminations. He also published Rimbaud’s early works, the Poésies, in 1895. The collection includes the poems written between 1869-1872, and though less exacting than the poems in his later collections, they have a sense of searching as Rimbaud inches closer and closer to what will later become his signature eccentric style that balances weighty themes with airy lightness. 
In 1891, Rimbaud developed a tumor in his right knee; the leg was amputated, but the cancer continued to spread, eventually taking his life at the age of 37. He is buried in Charleville, where he continues to be beloved by those who find solace in the exhilarating ponderations of the young enfant terrible of poetry.
-Abby Edgecumbe