Absinthe and the Muse

Absinthe is an alcoholic drink that gained a reputation for being a drink for poets and artists. Absinthe rose to popularity in late‑19th‑century France, especially in the cafés of Montmartre and the Latin Quarter — the same places where poets, painters, and musicians gathered. 

Some of the most famous absinthe‑drinking poets were Charles Baudelaire, Paul Verlaine, Arthur Rimbaud, and later Ernest Hemingway and James Joyce. Absinthe became associated with poets because it was cheap, strong, ritualistic, and mythologized as a way to summon "the Muse." 

That Muse was la fée verte, the Green Fairy, a muse who whispered inspiration to drinkers. Absinthe was high-proof and relatively cheap, and it became the drink of choice for the "Green Hour" (L'Heure Verte), a daily ritual in cafes.  

There was a ritual connected to absinthe that seemed almost alchemical and added to the mystery and myth. You would drip iced water over a sugar cube perched on a slotted spoon over the absinthe-filled glass. This turned the green drink a cloudy white. This also lowered the alcholic hit and bitterness but brought forward floral notes. This theatricality made it feel more like a potion than a beverage. Artists embraced the idea that it opened the mind to visions, even though its supposed hallucinogenic effects were much exaggerated. 

Charles Baudelaire is one of the earliest literary figures linked to absinthe. Although he didn’t write poems about absinthe directly, his fascination with altered states, decadence, and artificial paradises made the drink a natural part of his mythos. His prose work Les Paradis Artificiels explores intoxication and creativity.

In "Le Poison" (The Poison) by Baudelaire from his Les Fleurs du mal (The Flowers of Evil), he compares the mind-altering effects of wine and opium before introducing a third intoxicating power. While he does not say the word "absinthe" explicitly, it is widely accepted by literary scholars that the third verse is an ode to it, playing on its signature color and its nickname as a liquid lake of dreams.

All this is nothing to the poison that spills
From your eyes, from your green eyes
Lakes where my soul trembles and is turned upside down...

Paul Verlaine was a heavy absinthe drinker whose turbulent life — including his relationship with Rimbaud — became part of the Green Fairy legend. Absinthe appears in his letters and memoirs, and its haze fits the languor and melancholy of his Symbolist style.

Arthur Rimbaud drank absinthe with Verlaine during their infamous Paris and London years. His visionary, hallucinatory poetic style helped cement the idea that absinthe unlocked new modes of perception.

In the prose poem "Absinthia Taetra" by Ernest Dowson, a central figure in the English Decadent movement, he captures the aesthetic, sensory experience of preparing the drink.

Green changed to white, emerald to opal; nothing was changed. The man let the water trickle gently into his glass, and as the green clouded, a mist fell from his mind.

Ernest Hemingway is one of the 20th‑century devotees who helped revive absinthe’s mystique. He wrote about it in For Whom the Bell Tolls and drank it in Paris and Spain. His “Death in the Afternoon” cocktail was absinthe mixed with champagne.

James Joyce also drank absinthe in Paris during his early years. While not central to his writing or the mythology, it was part of the bohemian café culture that shaped Modernism.  

Read further about the science and mythology of absinthe

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Prompt: Birthday Connection

When I was a teen and first interested in writing poetry, I noticed in an almanac that I shared a birthday with the poet Arthur Rimbaud. I thought that perhaps because we shared a birthday (October 20) even though I was born 99 years later, perhaps we were similar. 

I looked up Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud. Right off, I realized that I had been pronouncing his name in my head incorrectly - not rim-baud but ræmˈ-boʊ. He was a French poet known for surreal themes, though he prefigured surrealism. He started writing at a very young age, was an excellent student, but abandoned formal education when he was my age and ran away from home to Paris during the Franco-Prussian War.

He was described as an enfant terrible of poetry. He was a literary bad boy, and became a mercenary arms dealer. He produced most of his writing in his late adolescence and early adulthood. He completely stopped writing literature at age 20, after he had put together assembling his last major work, Illuminations.

I was not a bad boy. I never dealt weapons. He wrote a lot of prose poetry and his poetry is nothing like mine.

Rimbaud

Years later, I discovered that the American poet Robert Pinsky also shares my birthday. Not only was he born on October 20 but we share a birthplace (New Jersey) and both received our BA at Rutgers College. Robert was born during WWII and I was born during the Korean War but at least we were born in the same century. 

I like Pinsky's poetry, but it is not like my poetry. He was our Poet Laureate (1997-2000) and he is the author of nineteen books. I met him twice when he gave readings at the Dodge Poetry Festivals. I mentioned our shared birthday and he reminded me that we also share the day with NY Yankees legend Mickey Mantle. Mantle was my birthday inspiration as a kid. I wanted to become a Yankee. I was a decent ballplayer, played the outfield like Mickey, but though I got lots of hits and stolen bases, I could not hit those long balls.

Pinsky

Did I learn anything about poetry from my poetry birthday buddies? Yes. First off, I looked up their poetry which I had not read earlier. I learned some other things, but that brings us to this month's prompt.

Do some research and find out who was born on your birthday. (Just search on Wikipedia for the date to start.) See if you find a poet. Any connections to your own life or poetry? You could also choose a writer or really anyone that interest you or you feel some connection to as the inspiration for your poem.

Postscript: I could not find a model poem for this prompt, (If you know a poem that fits, post it in a comment.) but I did find that Pinsky and Rimbaud both have poems titled "Antique." Are they connected? Did Pinsky know Rimbaud's poem and was he influenced by it? (Got any answers? Post that in a comment.) Give them a read: "Antique" by Robert Pinsky and "Antique" by Arthur Rimbaud. 

  

 

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