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    A Study Guide for Arthur Rimbaud's "The Drunken Boat"
    A Study Guide for Arthur Rimbaud's "The Drunken Boat"
    A Study Guide for Arthur Rimbaud's "The Drunken Boat"
    Ebook37 pages28 minutes

    A Study Guide for Arthur Rimbaud's "The Drunken Boat"

    By Gale and Cengage

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    About this ebook

    A Study Guide for Arthur Rimbaud's "The Drunken Boat," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Poetry for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Poetry for Students for all of your research needs.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCengage Learning - Gale
    Release dateSep 2, 2016
    ISBN9781535836302
    A Study Guide for Arthur Rimbaud's "The Drunken Boat"

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      Book preview

      A Study Guide for Arthur Rimbaud's "The Drunken Boat" - Gale

      08

      The Drunken Boat

      Arthur Rimbaud

      1884

      Introduction

      Arthur Rimbaud's The Drunken Boat was written in 1871 but was not published until 1884, when it appeared in an anthology of poetry called Les Poètes maudits. What makes this poem difficult is its lack of a narrated plot. It is instead a narrative of a state of being. As such, it requires symbols to express internal psychic events and experiences. Rimbaud writes as if he were dreaming.

      Symbolic poetry representing a symbolic voyage, the kind of poetry represented by The Drunken Boat, was not invented by Rimbaud. His older contemporary, Charles Baudelaire, in many ways served as a precursor for Rimbaud. Particularly noteworthy are Baudelaire's two later voyage poems, A Voyage to Cythera and The Voyage, published in 1857, in Les Fleurs du Mal (translated as The Flowers of Evil). Baudelaire's influence is also felt in the very Symbolist technique that informs the type of imagery in The Drunken Boat. Given these strong influences, Rimbaud's poem is also considered one of the finest examples of symbolist poetry.

      One of the best English translations of the poem, Wallace Fowlie's version of The Drunken Boat appears in Rimbaud: Complete Works, Selected Letters, A Bilingual Edition, published by the University of Chicago Press in 2005.

      Author Biography

      Arthur Rimbaud was born Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud in the French village of Charleville on October 20, 1854. He was one of the four surviving children born to Frédéric Rimbaud, soldier, adventurer, and man of letters, who deserted his family when Rimbaud was six, and to a strict, religious, unaffectionate mother, Marie-Cathérine-Vitalie Cuif. In October of 1861, Rimbaud and his elder brother were sent to school at the Institut Rossat. Rimbaud excelled, winning prizes in subjects ranging from Latin and French to History, Geography, and Arithmetic. Because the Institut Rossat was too liberal for her strict beliefs, Madame Rimbaud transferred the boys to the municipal school, the Collège de Charleville in April of 1865. Rimbaud distinguished himself there, too, especially for his essays. At fifteen years of age, Rimbaud was writing accomplished verse in Latin as well as French and was allowed to read whatever books he wished. Many of his school assignments in Latin verse were published in a journal devoted to the work of school children. His first published poem in French appeared in La

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