Arthur Rimbaud:"Royalty" and "Marine" (1886)

Royalty

One lovely morning, in a country among those people known to be gentle, a superb man and a woman cried aloud in the public square:

"I want her to be queen!"

"I want to be queen!"

She laughed, trembling. He spoke to his friends of revelation, of finished ordeals. In ecstasy they leaned, one against another. In actuality, they were indeed sovereigns for all of a morning, while banners of red were raised across all of the houses, for an afternoon, while the royal couple advanced toward the swaying palms in the garden.

Marine

Chariots of silver and copper—

Prows of steel and silver—

Beat the scum,—

Raise the stumps of brambles.

The currents of the land.

The huge dips of the tide going out.

Spins circularly eastward.

To the pillars of the forest.

Toward the east of the jetee.

Whose angle is struck by swirls of light.