Rimbaud's Subversive Sonnets: Venus Anadyomene and Ophelia
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Rimbaud, Venus Anadyomene, Ophelia, sonnet, ode, subversion, classical codes, female characters, poetic emancipation, French literature, 19th century poetry
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Abstract
Analysis of Rimbaud's poems, Venus Anadyomene and Ophelia, exploring their structure, classical references, and subversive elements.
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[...] What progressions do you notice? Venus Anadyomène It is therefore a sonnet, a classic form of 14 alexandrines divided into 2 quatrains with crossed rhymes followed by 2 tercets with flat rhymes (vers 9-10) then crossed (vers 11 to 14). The portrait proposed by this sonnet evolves from top to bottom of the body: head » v.1, "shoulder blades » v.5, ""reins » v.7, « croupe » v.13 and " anus » v.14). The viewer's gaze is invited to follow this downward movement along which the body's degradation intensifies. [...]
[...] How is nature represented in 'Ophelia'? What roles does the poet give her? To what literary movement does her presence make you think? Nature is personified and reacts to Ophelia's death: "The wind kisses her breasts/The quivering willows weep/The crushed water lilies sigh ». She thus seems to share her pain and play the roles of protector and comforter. The whole brings back the codes of the Romantic current, which dominated the first half of the 19this century, or the generation preceding that of Rimbaud. [...]
[...] You can use the previous points to answer. The creative emancipation in Rimbaud's writing is therefore characterized essentially by a subversive proposal, in the sense that the two poems upset the classical images of female characters by reviving one through prosopopoeia ((« Oh pale Ophelia » v.17) and in mocking the second presented as a 'woman? slow and stupid», v.2 and 3. Creative liberation is also expressed in these poems through a recourse to traditional forms of the ode and sonnet that Rimbaud deliberately subverts by placing them at the service of a deadly sorrow in Ophelia or of an assumed cynicism in his Venus Anadyomene. [...]
[...] The Venus Anadyomene echoes the painting by Sandro Botticelli titled Birth of Venus. This poem by Rimbaud also adopts the traditional codes of the sonnet: 2 quatrains in crossed rhymes ('head? pomaded? beast? rumpled » verses 1 to and two tercets with flat rhymes (verses 9-10) then crossed (verses 11 to 14). Ophélie reprises the female character of the Shakespearean tragedy, Hamlet. The poem is structured according to the classical canons of the ode, a long poem intended for singing, here composed of 9 quatrains with crossed rhymes («stars? [...]
