And from that time on I bathed in the Poem Of the Sea, star-infused and churned into milk, Devouring the green azures; where, entranced in pallid flotsam, A dreaming drowned man sometimes goes down.
Arthur RimbaudRead
It was the voice of mad seas, roaring immense,/ That shattered your infant breast, too soft, too human.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects the overwhelming power of nature and its impact on human vulnerability.
In this quote, Rimbaud describes a profound experience of encountering the ferocity of nature, represented by the 'mad seas'. The imagery of the sea's voice symbolizes a force much greater than human understanding, suggesting that this overwhelming force can shatter the innocence and softness of youth, hinting at the tensions between humanity and the relentless natural world we inhabit.
Themes
NatureVulnerabilityHumanityExperiencePower
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the impact of nature on human emotions, one might reference this quote to illustrate how the natural world's force can affect us deeply.
More from Arthur Rimbaud
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In the great glasshouses streaming with condensation, the children in mourning-dress beheld marvels.
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I turned silences and nights into words. What was unutterable, I wrote down. I made the whirling world stand still.
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Idle youth, enslaved to everything; by being too sensitive I have wasted my life.
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What a life! True life is elsewhere. We are not in the world.
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