Rimbaud’s poem “ Night in the hell” shows many hallucinations of himself living in the fantasy world. Nevertheless, the idea of the context is mainly about his suffering of being a sinner in the past. According to some scholars, he addressed Satan (“sweet Satan”) because he feels he has done something wrong and the whole piece has to do with the notion of sin (Drachman 153). After doing further research of his biography, I discovered that Rimbaud had a problem with his relationship with a guy, Paul Verlaine, and yet he never got married. Not to mention, he was a homosexual. He seems to be lonely, he had no brothers and sisters. He was looking back on his short life and finding himself at a point where he has to take a decision, when he says “It dawned on me to look again for the key.” I find this poem to be so unrealistic and more like a fantasy story, but there are many religious and spiritual lessons human beings can learn beyond the context and its interpretations.
He begins by saying “I have swallowed a fabulous dose of poison.” Here, he is showing us how he died, and how his journey to hell begins. In the first paragraph, its all about his sufferings and mistakes he thinks he had done either with his partner or someone special. From the way he wrote the beginning paragraph, I think the “dose of poison” depicts his partner. His partner might be a typical “evil” guy that has betrayed and/or deceived him. According to scholar, he had a short and torrid affair with Verlain, and yet, Verlain once shot him and almost murdered him in a party (Drachman 155). So, the pain he alleged in the first paragraph confirms how terrible their relationship was. Unlike other poets, he could not enjoy his short life. He suffered from cancer since his childhood and yet his partner can’t gave him happiness. In short, he wishes he could turn back time and start a new life since he was imagining a better life when he stated “I nearly caught a glimpse of conversion: to goodness, and happiness, salvation, etc.” He had a false perception of his life and relationship.
Then, he continued babbling and complaining of all his wrong decisions, like when he says “I’m the slave of my own baptista. Parents, you made my life a misery, and your lives too.” He is blaming his Father, his “Jesus”, for not guiding him in the right path and not taking him out of damnation. Like many religious followers today, humans often blame their God for not fulfilling their dreams and yet they lose their faith in their beliefs. In fact, the number of people who believe in the existence of God today kept declining, mainly due to scientific reasoning or people just lost their faith (or what he described “I alchemized human hope, and it vanished from my soul. Like some wild animals, I pounced upon joy and strangled it.” Nevertheless, he is being too sentimental and skeptical about his beliefs. He ought not to release his frustration with his partner since it crushes many believes, like in the Psalms 4:4-5 stated “Be angry, and do not sin; ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent. Selah Offer right sacrifices, and put your trust in the Lord.” But what really motivates him to write this essay?
“Hellfire cannot harm hearthens” and “Charity is the key–that proves I’ve been dreaming.” Here, it changed my perceptions about his poem. I thought he just wanted us to know his misery in “hell”, but then I realized he also wanted us to not repeat his mistakes and not look back in the past. He believes our life depends on our choice, like when he writes “Enough–Dear Satan, I beg you, soften those angry eyes! And while we are waiting for my last few laggard infamies to appear , I shall, since you’ve always preferred the unedefying writers, give you these dreary scraps from my journal of hell.” His relationship might be catastrophic, but the lessons he learnt are very influential to today gay marriage. Even though he was deceived by his partner, he never regrets his choices as he claimed “I’m a thousand times richer than they are. Let be avaricious, like the sea; my life was sugarcoated nonsense.” Overall, I think it is a very simplistic writing and there are many imageries throughout the poems. The word choices is also understandable. What I learned here is “Our frustration is greater when we have much and want more than when we have nothing and want some. We are less dissatisfied when we lack many things than when we seem to lack but one thing” (Eric Hoffer).
Drachman, Steven S. (2011). The Ghosts of Watt O’Hugh. Chickadee Prince Books. p. 153-157
Hanz did an excellent job of analyzing “Night of Hell” and there is significant evidence from the poem that supports the notion that Rimbaud is a very disturbed poet. If the poem does not give us enough hints to Rimbauld’s depressed and disturbed state of mind, he makes blatantly obvious, when he writes: “And still this is life!-So what if damnation is forever and ever? A man who chooses to mutilate himself deserves damnation, yes? I believe that I’m in hell, so I’m in hell. So much for catechism. I’m the slave of my own baptism. Parents, you made my life a misery…” Rimbauld’s homosexuality was a major source of conflict for him during the 19th century and it is evident that he comes from a religious family as is evident in the text. Rimbauld’s homosexuality was in direct contradiction with the views of the church and he must have received much criticism from his family and society at large, which all must have served as catalysts for his non compos mentis state of mind at the time of writing “Night of Hell.” I think that Rimbauld is plagued by much more than relationship troubles, but rather a disgust with society as a whole.
Great job Hanz on the blog post.I agree with your main points, there is no doubt that Rimbaud was a troubled person with many conflicting emotions. Reading through these poems it seems like he really did not enjoy life at all including himself. For example in the Night of Hell poem he seems to suggest that at one point he contemplated committing suicide. He says “I have a pillow over my mouth”. He even says that a man who mutilates himself deserves damnation; followed by I believe that i’m in hell, so im in hell”.
His words indicate that he had quite an ego, unafraid of what others thought of him. He at times carelessly mocked religion during a time when there was little tolerance for such thoughts. The
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The common person especially during this time period wouldn’t dare to mock a powerful subject such as satan but Rimbaud really didn’t care, in fact he toys around with satan multiple times in these poems. At the end of Night of Hell he says “Satan you clown, you’d like to obliterate me with your mumbo jumbo. Bring it on then, Bring it on”!
My overall reaction to reading these poems was just confusion and bewilderness. Even though i’m not sure it has been confirmed, reading through these poems i thought that maybe Rimbaud was bipolar and insane. One moment he makes positive and calming points but then he goes off in a rant about satan and grim subjects. My guess is that his bouts with having to deal with his homosexuality and just being lonely are major contributions to these powerful emotions that he expresses in these two poems.
-Joseph Madera