Sonnet to an Asshole

Synopsis

The Idol — Sonnet of the Asshole (French: L’Idole — Sonnet du trou du cul) is a sonnet in alexandrines written by Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud in Paris in 1871. It is both a celebration of the human anus and a parody of the fetishisation of the female body by Albert Mérat (within his collection L'Idole) and other Parnassian poets. The poem pushed the limits "not only of acceptable poetic and social behavior, but of French verse in its formal intelligibility too." From 1871 through 1873, Rimbaud and Verlaine engaged in a tempestuous sexual and romantic relationship, the latter committing infidelity against his wife Mathilde Mauté. They are regarded by scholars as the first openly homosexual couple in modern literary history. Verlaine composed the sonnet's quatrains and Rimbaud wrote the tercets, with both poets pastiching the style of the other. The poem was written into the Album zutique and later collected in Verlaine's privately printed volume Hombres.

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Details

Type

Book

Created by

Arthur Rimbaud, Paul Verlaine