The Months of Love
On May 24, 1870, Rimbaud wrote a letter from
Charleville to Théodore de Banville, leader of a
group of poets in Paris. Maybe each intense
blueness is eternal, even if only for the season of love.
“Dear Master, We are in the months of love
And I am seventeen,” wrote Rimbaud to
The Zeus of the Parnassians, for of
The truth of dragging facts Arthur knew
Nothing. He was a poet and fifteen.
De Banville didn’t publish Arthur’s verse
At once because he did not know how keen
The blues of Rimbaud’s eyes were. Even worse
This Théodore kept treasured in his desk
This poetry, perhaps because the man
Learned later that those blues, truly grotesque
In lying beauty, rated lock and ban.
The editor Bastilled the supernal.
….He feared that azure would be eternal.
de Banville