...I is another. If the brass wakes the trumpet, it’s not its fault. That’s obvious to me: I witness the unfolding of my own thought: I watch it, I hear it: I make a stroke with the bow: the symphony begins in the depths, or springs with a bound onto the stage. If the old imbeciles hadn’t discovered only the false significance of Self, we wouldn’t have to now sweep away those millions of skeletons which have been piling up the products of their one-eyed intellect since time immemorial, and claiming themselves to be their authors!

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Rimbaud and Verlaine began a short and torrid affair. The post-operative diagnosis was cancer. Until this time his reading was confined almost entirely to the Bible but he also enjoyed fairy tales and stories of adventure such as the novels of James Fenimore Cooper and Gustave Aimard.

Rimbaud was known to have been a libertine and restless soul travelling extensively on three continents before his death from cancer just after his 37th birthday. For other people named Rimbaud see Rimbaud (surname). Born in Charleville Ardennes he produced his works while still in his late teens—Victor Hugo described him at the time as "an infant Shakespeare"—and gave up creative writing before the age of 20.