Abstract

Late 19th century French poet Arthur Rimbaud wrote two masterpieces of poetry, “Illuminations,” and “A Season in Hell,” before the age of 21. His vision as a poet was defined in two letters known today as the Seer letters, where he rethinks thought, poetry, and creativity in a manner that had not been conceived of before. For Rimbaud, poetry is an act of liberation as well as aesthetic experience. Creativity is a journey that can end in a “derangement of all the senses.” Cogito Ergo Sum—“I think therefore I am”—now gets challenged as “I is somebody else.” At the end of his second and last Seer letter, Rimbaud has also reconstructed cognitive, creative, and poetic theory. As his recent biographer, Graham Robb has noted about the first Seer letter: “it contained the equation that has often been treated as the poetic E = mc2” while the second letter “is a gripping piece of literary criticism, a curious, plausible attempt to reconcile the two antagonistic trends of nineteenth century poetry.”