Abstract: In the letter that he sends to Jules Andrieu on 16 April 1874, Rimbaud describes what he calls “chic mysticism” as one of the core registers of his poetic oeuvre. In declaring his intent to return once more to this vein of pseudo-mysticism for the Histoire splendide he describes in his letter to Andrieu, he contradicts an important statement found in a draft of “Alchemy of the verb” (“I now detest the mystic impulse”). Perhaps, within this contradiction, we may find resources allowing us to re-read the infamous conclusion : “It’s over. I know today how to salute/recognize beauty.”
