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The Role of Rimbaud in Char's Poetry
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 December 2020
Abstract
René Char acknowledges that his major poetic precursor is Arthur Rimbaud. Char is esthetically indebted to Rimbaud for his creative vision, teleology, and practice. The numerous thematic affinities between these two poets include a humanized harmonious universe, the attitude of revolt, the obligation of anguish, the poet as the initiator of action, and the concepts of poetic activity, love, experience, risk, man, nature. The poetic matter of their creative worlds is identical, but Char brings the necessary corrective of faith in human expression to Rimbaud's immature reliance on verbal expression. Where Rimbaud fails to synthesize the fragments, Char succeeds. It is Char's understanding of Rimbaud's work that enables him to evolve a poetic based first on life and second on theory. Char does not merely humanize the cosmos; he goes on to poeticize man. Technical similarities are equally numerous, but Char is disciplined; he rejects the equation of the act and expression in favor of an evocation of the activity through the effect of spontaneity, his theories of pulverization and crispation. Char overcomes Rimbaud's limits and frustrations and succeeds in fulfilling his vision.
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- Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1974
References
Note 1 in page 63 This text was originally published in 1957 as the introduction to Char's edition of Rimbaud's complete works.
Note 2 in page 63 These texts are: “Tu as bien fait de partir, Arthur Rimbaud!” Fureur et mystère (Paris: Gallimard, 1948, 1962); “En 1871,” Recherche de la base et du sommet (Paris: Gallimard, 1955, 1965); and Le Dernier Couac (Paris: GLM, 1958). Char's title, Le Dernier Couac, is drawn from Rimbaud's text, “Jadis, si je me souviens bien …” (Une Saison en enfer). A fourth text, “Arthur Rimbaud,” is included in the 1965 edition; see n. 1. The three texts in which Rimbaud is cited are “La Poésie indispensable,” “La Conversation souveraine,” and “Page d'ascendants pour Tan 1964,” Recherche de la base et dusommet (Paris: Gallimard, 1965). It is important to note that two of these texts were added to the 1965 edition, which indicates an increasing awareness on Char's part of the important role that Rimbaud has played in the development of his own poetics.
Note 3 in page 63 In my work on Char, The Poetics and the Poetry of René Char (Chapel Hill: Univ. of North Carolina Press, 1968), I refer briefly to the affinities between Rimbaud and Char as assessed by Char (pp. 143–44). The only other mention of this subject is found in C.-A. Hackett's Autour de Rimbaud (Paris: Klincksieck, 1967), pp. 78–80; Hackett merely indicates in general terms that similar qualities exist in the two poets, but he does not analyze them in any detail.
Note 4 in page 63 It is generally known that Rimbaud was interested in alchemy (“Alchimie du verbe,” Une Saison en enfer), but not that Char occasionally uses the term alchemy to describe the transformation effected by poetry: “Par une fine pluie d'amande, / mêlée de liberté docile, / ta gardienne alchimie s'est produite, /ô Bien-aimée!” (“Conduite,” Le Visage nuptial, 1938).
Note 5 in page 63 Rapidity and urgency are salient characteristics, and a vocabulary of energy prevails in both poets. The title of a Rimbaud text is “L'Eclair” (Une Saison en enfer) and Char uses the same term to depict the momentary transforming quality of free unrestrained poetic activity: “Le seul maître qui nous soit propice, c'est l'Eclair, qui tantôt nous illumine et tantôt nous pourfend” (“Les Compagnons dans le jardin,” La Parole en archipel, 1962); “Si nous habitons un éclair, il est le cœur de l'éternel” (No. 24, À la santé du serpent, 1946; here and elsewhere, arabic numerals, e.g., No. 24, refer to the untitled aphorisms in the works cited).
Note 6 in page 63 The poet is the discoverer of “le soleil,” an image for cosmic unity adopted and maintained by both poets. Rimbaud's goal is to reveal man as the “fils du Soleil” (“Vagabonds,” Illuminations), while Char seeks “obtenir cet absolu inextinguible, ce rameau du premier soleil” (No. 12, Partage formel in Fureur et mystère, 1948) and “gagner le soleil” (“La Délivrance naturelle,” Arsenal, 1929).
Note 7 in page 63 Rimbaud, “Lettre à Georges Izambard, 12 mai 1871,” Œuvres, ed. Suzanne Bernard (Paris: Gamier, 1960), p.343. Hereafter cited in text as Œuvres.
Note 8 in page 63 Rimbaud's desire to avoid risk does not mean that he actually avoids it; after all, “Le Bateau ivre” and the practice of “le dérèglement de tous les sens” entail risk. But his experience of risk is always negative, for it consistently results in rupture without reassembly. Hence, in those texts of the Illuminations written after those of Poésies and Une Saison en enfer, risk is deliberately circumvented. Char understands Rimbaud's dilemma; he sees the underlying necessity of risk for Rimbaud, while, at the same time, grasping Rimbaud's fear that a new structure may not emerge from the destruction of the old. In this sense, Rimbaud seeks to avoid risk, that is, avoid permanent disorder and rupture.
Note 9 in page 63 A vocabulary of nature characterizes both Char and Rimbaud: “soleil,” “lumière,” “arc-en-ciel,” “fleur,” “nuit,” “matin” occur frequently in their poetry. One difference is that Char also constructs images based on animals (Les Quatre Fascinants, 1951 ; A la santé du serpent, 1946), while Rimbaud rarely refers to an animal.
Note 10 in page 63 A striking similarity in vocabulary usage is found in the use of color. Much has been noted about Rimbaud's colored vision, particularly in “Voyelles” and “Le Bateau ivre”: “j'inventai la couleur des voyelles!—A noir, ? blanc, I rouge, ? bleu, U vert” (“Délires ii,” Une Saison en enfer). However, little attention has been given to Char's use of color: “Ton audace, une verrue. Ton action, une image spécieuse, par faveur coloriée” (No. 210, Feuillets d'Hypnos, 1946). Char assigns a color (blue, red, black, green, lavender, white) to evoke the essence of an object's meaning; an example of this is found in the text “La Liberté” (Seuls demeurent, 1945): “Elle est venue par cette ligne blanche.”
Note 11 in page 63 Some of the more important technical similarities between Char and Rimbaud are found in the dominance of the present tense, the evocation of a daily, everyday reality, the reduction of transitional and qualifying phrases, the juxtaposition of concrete and abstract terms, the distinctions between the various personae (“je,” “nous,” “on”), the use of “tu” as a poetic companion or muse. Nevertheless, a detailed study of these likenesses would reveal fundamental differences.