How does Illuminations blur the line between reality and hallucination?

In his collection Illuminations, Arthur Rimbaud sought to abolish the distinction between reality and hallucination by revolutionizing the use of language. Rather than relying on the standard denotations of words, he utilized them for their evocative and associative power, stripping prose poetry of traditional narrative and descriptive constraints.12

Rimbaud constructed an imaginary universe—a primitive fantasy world filled with quasi-divine beings and kaleidoscopic cities—that functioned through images possessing the vividness of hallucinations. To achieve this, he employed hypnotic rhythms, dense musical patterns, and complex linguistic techniques, including puns and juggled syntax, to create a sense of reality that felt as fluid and intense as a vision.2

This approach was rooted in his philosophy of the voyant (seer), which involved the systematic "derangement of all the senses" to expand consciousness and access a spiritual "unknown". By allowing these visions to dictate the structure of his work, Rimbaud successfully blurred the lines between the tangible world and the hallucinatory, leaving a profound impact on the development of modern poetry.324