Extract
[...] Cahiers de Douai, Venus anadyomène - Arthur Rimbaud (1870) - In what this poem, through a parody of Venus, criticizes the codes of beauty and poetry? - Oral bac exam The poem Venus anadyomène by Rimbaud is a sonnet published in the collection the Cahiers de Douai in 1870. He revisits, in a modern and personal vision, the birth of Venus, the goddess of love, a theme that has inspired a large number of artists such as the Renaissance painter Botticelli. [...]
[...] The enjambments participate in the new style of the poem: a horrible taste/Strangely (lines 9 and and « horrible étrangement » (line 10) is highlighted by thehémistiche and theenjambement from verse 9 to verse 10. Rimbaud uses the lexical field of animality to describe Venus: 'back' (verse 'croup' (verse 13). The back is also the name of a piece of meat. The adjective 'red' highlights Venus' effort to get out of the bathtub, which removes all sensuality from the scene. [...]
[...] New discovery, Rimbaud uses a clinical, almost aseptic description of the body instead of poetic language. In the first tercet, all the senses express the monstrosity of Venus: 'and the whole tastes a flavor' The is replaced by the neuter personal pronoun 'one' (verse 10). The strangeness of the sonnet is recalled by the term 'singularities' (verse 11). The injunction 'one must' (verse 11) invites to detect a new lyricism, notably through the inscription 'Clara Venus' (verse 12). Clara, in Latin, meaning 'clear, bright'. [...]
[...] This also implies perhaps obscene, scatological sexual practices. 'Anus' rhymes with 'Venus' but the two terms are antithetical for create the surprise. Therefore, we can conclude that this poem, beyond the parody of Venus, criticizes the codes of beauty and poetry, based on the transcendence of the poetic aestheticism of Rimbaud's era. This poem brings Rimbaud closer to the Parnassian movement, even if he will later detach himself from it. The sonnet translates the quest for creative freedom sought by Rimbaud in his work. [...]
[...] It is death that is represented in opposition to birth. The lexical field of the body shows the choice of body parts that do not represent poetic feminine beauty: 'brown hair', 'shoulder blades', 'loins', 'spine', 'rump', 'anus'. Venus appears as an animal or a monster, and not as a goddess or even a gracious female figure. The goddess is described by the lexical field of old age and ugliness, through the alliterations in 'green in iron white' (verse « brown hair strongly pomaded" (verse « old bathtub" (verse « deficits quite poorly reimbursed « fat and grey" (verse "grease under the skin" (verse We are faced with a wilted, neglected, and clumsily made-up body to hide the flaws. [...]
