Poetry
Douai Notebooks
Cahier de Douai
Arthur Rimbaud · 1891
Synopsis
Twenty-two poems written by Rimbaud between March and October 1870, copied out in his own hand. Love poems, such as Première soirée, Roman or Rêvé pour l'hiver, stand beside political pieces against the Empire and the war, such as Le Mal or Rages de Césars, and satires of bourgeois life, such as À la musique. The young poet also tells of running away and the freedom of the road, from Sensation to Ma Bohème, while ironically subverting the models he admires.
Context
Rimbaud gave these poems to Paul Demeny during two stays in Douai: fifteen on 26 September 1870, while he was lodging with the aunts of his teacher Georges Izambard, then seven sonnets in October. He later asked him to burn them; Demeny did nothing of the kind and sold them to Rodolphe Darzens. The poems first appeared in 1891 in Reliquaire, published by Léon Genonceaux, and the manuscript was reproduced in facsimile by Messein in 1919. Bought by Stefan Zweig in 1914, it entered the British Library in 1985. It is also called the Recueil de Douai or Recueil Demeny.
Who it is for
To read Rimbaud's very first poems, where desire, political anger and a taste for freedom mingle.
Prizes and reception
On the French première syllabus for 2026-2027, these poems are read in the order of the manuscript, from Première soirée to Ma Bohème (Fantaisie).