Voyelles
A noir, E blanc, I rouge, U vert, O bleu: voyelles,
Je dirai quelque jour vos naissances latentes:
A, noir corset velu des mouches éclatantes
Qui bombinent autour des puanteurs cruelles,Golfes d'ombre; E, candeurs des vapeurs et des tentes,
Lances des glaciers fiers, rois blancs, frissons d'ombelles;
I, pourpres, sang craché, rire des lèvres belles
Dans la colère ou les ivresses pénitentes;U, cycles, vibrements divins des mers virides,
Paix des pâtis semés d'animaux, paix des rides
Que l'alchimie imprime aux grands fronts studieux;O, suprême Clairon plein de strideurs étranges,
Silences traversés des Mondes et des Anges:
- O l'Oméga, rayon violet de Ses Yeux!Arthur Rimbaud
This poem, called vowels, is about colours too. Do you think that because the French vowels are pronounced differently from English, different colours should be used in England?
Rimbaud writes that A = black, E = white, I = red, U = green and O = blue. What colour do you think each vowel is? Say them over slowly and clearly.
If you whisper them, do they change colour? What happens if you shout them out loud?
Rimbaud feels that A is like a black corset of glittering flies who bomb around cruel stinks.
I don't think A is a bit like this. What do you think? What is A like to you?
E, according to Rimbaud, is like steam, marqees, splinters of fierce glaciers, white kings, shivering lace.
I is a purplish-red like spat blood, laughter on beautiful lips in anger or in sorry drunkenness.
U is like the divine motion of the deep green seas, the peace of pastures dotted with animals, the peace of wrinkles, imprinted by alchemy on thoughtful foreheads.
The only vowel that seems the same as one of Rimbaud's to me is U. How about you?
Write a poem describing the colours of the vowels from your point of view. Try not to use phrases that have been used before and have become hackneyed, such as 'as white as snow', or 'as blue as the sky'.