To Music

Poem by Arthur Rimbaud Collection PoetryThemes SatirePeriod 19th centuryArthur's analysis ↓

Place de la Gare, in Charleville.

On the square laid out in measly lawns,
A square where everything is proper, the trees and the flowers,
All the wheezing bourgeois whom the heat waves strangle
Wear, on Thursday evenings, their jealous stupidities.

– The military band, in the middle of the garden,
Sways its shakos in the Waltz of the Fifes:
Around, in the front rows, the dandy parades;
The notary hangs from his numeral watch charms.

Men of means with lorgnettes underline every wrong note:
The puffed-up big offices dragging their big wives
Beside whom walk, officious elephant keepers,
Those whose flounces have the air of advertisements;

On the green benches, clubs of retired grocers
Who poke the sand with their knobbed canes,
Very seriously discuss the treaties,
Then take snuff in silver, and resume: “” All in all!… “”

Sprawling on his bench the roundness of his haunches,
A bourgeois with bright buttons, a Flemish belly,
Savors his onnaing from which tobacco in shreds
Spills over – you know, it’s contraband; –
Along the green lawns the street urchins snicker;
And, made amorous by the song of the trombones,
Very naive, and smoking roses, the little soldiers
Caress the babies to wheedle the maids…

– I, unbuttoned like a student,
Under the green chestnut trees the alert young girls:
They know it well; and turn laughing,
Toward me, their eyes full of indiscreet things.

I don’t say a word: I keep watching
The flesh of their white necks embroidered with wild locks:
I am, beneath the bodice and the frail finery,
The divine back after the curve of the shoulders.

I have soon unearthed the bootie, the stocking…
– I reconstruct the bodies, burning with beautiful fevers.
They find me funny and talk to each other softly…
– And I feel the kisses coming to my lips…

Arthur Rimbaud

Translation generated by Poésies 123 with assistance from the deepseek-chat artificial-intelligence model.

Text published on Poésies 123: https://www.poesies123.com/en/poem-to-music-arthur-rimbaud/

Arthur

Interpretation

Arthur's analysis

A youthful poem by Rimbaud, "To Music" ironically depicts the Place de la Gare in Charleville on a Sunday afternoon. From the opening, the setting is established: "On the square laid out in measly lawns," a square "where everything is proper." The poet observes the social comedy there.

The "wheezing" bourgeois and their "jealous stupidities" occupy the first stanza, already savagely sketched. Then the military band, with its "shakos" and the "Waltz of the Fifes," becomes the center of a parade in which dandies, notaries, and men of means file past. Each type is caught in a revealing gesture: the notary "hangs from his numeral watch charms," the men of means "underline every wrong note," the grocers "poke the sand." Rimbaud multiplies satirical details, such as the contraband tobacco or the street urchins who "snicker."

The military music, meant to uplift, only underscores the general mediocrity. The "little soldiers" caress the babies "to wheedle the maids," and the young girls "turn laughing." The poet himself stands apart: "unbuttoned like a student," he watches "the flesh of their white necks." His gaze becomes voyeuristic, "burning with beautiful fevers," and reconstructs the bodies beneath the bodices. In doing so, he sets himself against bourgeois respectability and official music.

The final stanza suggests a troubled exchange: the young girls find him "funny" and whisper, while he "feel[s] the kisses" coming to his lips. The irony is biting: the public scene of the brass band is doubled by a clandestine and sensual sentimental education.

Thus, "To Music" opposes the order of the square with the freedom of desire and the poet's impudent gaze, transforming a provincial scene into a satirical picture and a manifesto of youthful revolt.

Analysis written with the help of artificial intelligence, following the analysis method established by Arthur.

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