Art, literature & culture

Death of Arthur Rimbaud

10 November 1891

Arthur Rimbaud died on 10 November 1891 in Marseille, aged 37. A French poet who became a symbol of rebellious youth, Rimbaud wrote nearly all of his verse as a teenager. Poems such as The Drunken Boat and the prose collections A Season in Hell and Illuminations influenced the Symbolists, the Surrealists and many later writers with their visionary imagery and daring language. His stormy relationship with the poet Paul Verlaine ended in violence and a prison sentence for Verlaine. Rimbaud then abandoned literature in his early twenties and spent years travelling and trading in places such as Cyprus, Yemen and Ethiopia.

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