The Drunken Boat

The Drunken Boat, poem by the 16-year-old French poet Arthur Rimbaud, written in 1871 as “Le Bateau ivre” and often considered his finest poem. The poem was written under the sponsorship of the poet Paul Verlaine, who first published it in his study of Rimbaud that appeared in the review Lutèce in 1883. “The Drunken Boat” is written in the first person from the point of view of a boat that is adrift after all...