[RIMBAUD] DERMÉE, Paul (1886-1951)

[RIMBAUD] DERMÉE, Paul (1886-1951)

Autograph manuscript (for a conference ?)
N.p.n.d. [c. 1920], 4 p. 1,/2 in-4°

A remarkable critical study of Rimbaud’s work by Paul Dermée, one of the major figures of Dadaism

Dermée reviews some of the most emblematic works of Arthur Rimbaud.
For « Oraison du soir », he analyzes the poem in terms of « rhétorique romantique en quatrains croisés, certains souffle, langue très sonore, haute en couleurs. Larges enjambements […] ». He copies out three lines from the poem:
« Je vis assis, tel qu’un ange aux mains d’un barbier […]
Tels que les excréments chauds d’un vieux colombier,
Mille Rêves en moi font de douces brûlures »
Later, he continues with an in-depth analysis of the « Bateau ivre », for which he evokes a work centered on « le vrai lyrisme, correspondances des images et renversements, ardemment exprimés […] ». Here too, he quotes several lines from the poem.
He goes on with « Voyelles », which he describes as a « sensualité violente […] intéressé et sensible au son des mots, à leur vie physique ».
Throughout the manuscript, Dermée strives to highlight analogies (sometimes anachronistic) between Rimbaud’s production and that of other poets or artists such as Hugo, Baudelaire, but also Apollinaire or even Gauguin.
He concludes with the Illuminations: « Rimbaud jette les deux mains dans la couleur, le brillant, le merveilleux, les anges, les monstres… »

The Rimbaldian influence among the Dadaists is fundamental, alongside that of Lautréamont. It continuously permeated the imagination of their poets — Aragon foremost, with his collection Feu de joie, published in 1919.
For the Dadaist avant-garde, Rimbaud embodies the renunciation of the work and the venture into the Real; for everyone, he embodies the “Harar,” because silence is inimitable (Alain Borer).