Novel By Wallace Fowlie: Poem Analysis

The poem novel is a translation by Wallace Fowlie. The original was written by Arthur Rimbaud and it was called Roman in French which also means novel. I would like to begin with the title. For me the title is extremely important. The reason I think the title is important is also because I feel that when I first read the poem, I asked my self is this apt? Because on the first reading I felt the poem could have been called something else. I did not think as to what it should be called but I definitely did not agree with the title novel. Let us now look at the meaning of novel. According to the Oxford dictionary the word novel means a story long enough to fill a complete book, in which the characters and events are usually imaginary. So if we were to take this title in its literal sense we will think that the poem is fictitious and most of us would think that it is fictitious. But if one were to go into greater detail regarding the poet’s life one would realise that this poem somewhat reflects his own life. The poet was almost seventeen years old when he wrote this poem and I feel that he is talking about a girl but he had a relationship with Paul Verlaine at this time

One cannot ignore it as the novel Robinson Crusoe depicts a story of a castaway and how grapples with life and the situations he faces there. But the poem and the novel do not seem to be related. But maybe this signifies that once this love would be over he would be alone and figuring things out for himself. By the line girl under the shadow of her father’s collar. Maybe the poet is trying to signify that the girl is protected by her father and she is out of his reach even if he can see her passing by under the lamp. The statement and as she finds you incredibly naïve makes me think could this be the reference to Verlaine as he was older than Rimbaud and older people mostly find the young people naïve. Cavatina is a short song or a musical