SOURCE: Cohn, Robert Greer. “The Early Poems: ‘Le Bateau ivre’.” In The Poetry of Rimbaud, pp. 156-72. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1973.

In the following excerpt, Cohn analyzes Rimbaud's most acclaimed poem, “The Drunken Boat.”

Rimbaud's most famous poem [“Le Bateau ivre”] had so long been overpraised (particularly in relation to some of his other works, like “Mémoire” or “Génie”) that more recently there has been a tendency to underestimate it. I still regard it as a fantastic achievement by a boy of sixteen, or of any other age. It is less original than used to be thought—this is always the fate of originality, given time and historical critics—but powerfully inventive for all that, and absolutely characteristic of Rimbaud, linking up with the rest of his writings in countless ways.

The form is traditional Late Romantic, Parnassian, but the imagery and general tone...