Theology and Medicine in Rimbaud's Sonnet "Voyelles"

Voyelles is one of the most discussed sonnets in literature. R. Etiemble's conclusion in his book devoted to the poem -- that it is simply about religious experience -- has been stressed by another leading Rimbaldian, E. Noulet. The present article argues that Rimbaud's main sources were theological and medical, linked in this instance by common ground in the morbus sacer of the Ancients (epilepsy). Epileptic and allied sense hallucinations as recorded by the doctors of Antiquity and translated by Michéa in his Du Déire des sensations are used by Rimbaud as markers on the path to a mystical vision. The theology of this vision is mainly Islamic and heterodox. Rimbaud also drew on the notion of alphabetic symbolism, apparently using both theory and some examples from J. M. Moussaud's Alphabet raisonne. Further letter or idea exemplifications were taken from an Arabic literary reader by L. J. Bresnier (reviewed in the same issue of the Revue de l'Orient which contained an article by Rimbaud's father, Frédéric). The implication is that Rimbaud found much of this source material in the notes and books left in the family home by the polymath, Arabist father. That the grammatical work, a Koran translation, and a variety of other unpublished items were left in the Charleville house after the father's departure is amply attested to by Isabelle Rimbaud, the poet's sister. (HL-B)