Reader Review:Poetry & Prose: An honest vision of a tortured life.Arthur Rimbaud's Poems and Prose speak a dark truth of life. <P>Rimbaud does not shield you from the realities of his time or his life. He writes of all the things he encountered as a child, soldier, poet, lover, and vagabond. <P>His poems are of his youth and his prose are of his life. The poems do not depict a romantic childhood but of one with struggle and cynism that he carried all his life. To read his poems is to experience his youthful assurance that the world was flawed. You will be affected by his dark perception of the world and awed by his realistic and symbolic style.<P>As for his prose, he writes of a tortured existence and bohemian lifestyle steeped in a wild reality that was his life.<P>My favorit passages from this book of poems and prose:<P>"One evening, I sat Beauty in my lap. - And I found her bitter. - And I cursed her." from A Season in Hell<P>"It is found again. What? Eternity. It is the sea, Gone with the sun." from Eternity<P>I very much enjoyed this book and thought Rimbaud changed modern poetry and writing and brought us into a new realistic age in writing. He opened the doors for some of the great 20th century writers. (Rating: 5)