POETRY | ARTHUR RIMBAUD

Here, Come Closer…

A Cento Poem

Photo by Alessio Soggetti on Unsplash

I was recently raiding my bookshelf in search of some poetic inspiration and came across an old Arthur Rimbaud book from my university days.

Inside, I found some of my favourite lines highlighted, and I thought, “wow, what if I made a poem out of these lines?” And then I wondered if there was a known poetic form that creates a poem exclusively out of borrowed lines.

There is, and it is called the ***Cento: ***a literary work collaged entirely from other writers’ verses or passages.

I have created my Cento from Arthur Rimbaud’s Selected Poems and Letters, from the lines I highlighted over the years (slightly tweaked for ease of flow).

The title of this poem was also a borrowed line of poetry from the book.

Here, Come Closer…

Here’s a gentleman who doesn’t know what he’s doing: he’s an angel. Like him I consume myself and a morbid thirst darkens my veins. I’ve got two good hands, a head on my shoulders, and a hammer. That’s her, the little dead girl behind the roses, dark and puckered like a purple carnation — smitten — You kissed my hair… And I let you do it. And so, no more kisses, not a single sweet surprise as my sad heart is defiled. Then, one night, the Object of Devotion deigns to write…

© Ruth Francise (and Arthur Rimbaud)

“Idle youth, enslaved to everything; by being too sensitive I have wasted my life.” ~ Arthur Rimbaud

✨Thank you, dear reader, for spending some time with me. I appreciate you✨

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