Abstract: In this paper I examine those passages in Rimbaud’s poetry where the French verb “rire” is constructed with a complement introduced by the preposition “à”. In the 1870 poems, Rimbaud is clearly influenced by Sully Prudhomme’s translation of Lucretius, which he plagiarized and modified on different points whereas I show how, in “Bannières de mai” / “Patience [D’un été.]”, the use of “rire” most likely derives from Virgil’s Fourth Eclogue.
