SOURCE: de Dobay Rifelj, Carol. “Rimbaud: Poetics and Politics.” In Word and Figure: The Language of Nineteenth-Century French Poetry, pp. 132-64. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1987.

In the following essay, de Dobay Rifelj discusses Rimbaud's innovations in reproducing the speech of the lower classes and in combining formal poetic language with vulgar and vernacular terms.

“Rimbaud bourre ses vers de mots triviaux, écrit dans une langue très voisine de la langue parlée,” writes François Ruchon. These “mots roturiers … sont la traduction de l'état de révolte, d'ironie, de haine où il vit, dans la contrainte de Charleville et dans l'âpre ennui qui succède à ses escapades” (175). This quotation epitomizes the critical commentary on Rimbaud's linguistic innovations in verse: “revolutionary” poetic discourse equals revolt against society. This equation has been formulated in various ways and has been applied in different ways to various texts...