Illuminations (poetry collection) Illuminations (poetry collection) Illuminations is an uncompleted suite of prose poems by the French poet Arthur Rimbaud, first published partially in "", a Paris literary review, in May–June 1886. The texts were reprinted in book form in October 1886 by Les publications de La Vogue under the title "Les Illuminations" proposed by the poet Paul Verlaine, Rimbaud's former lover. In his preface, Verlaine explained that the title was based on the English word "illuminations", in the sense of coloured plates, and a sub-title that Rimbaud had already given the work. Verlaine dated its composition between 1873 and 1875. Rimbaud wrote
Elizabeth Alexander (poet) literature and culture and recently published a collection of essays entitled "The Black Interior." Alexander received the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award Lifetime Achievement Award in Poetry in 2010. On January 20, 2009, at the presidential inauguration of Barack Obama, Alexander recited her poem "Praise Song for the Day", which she had composed for the occasion. She became only the fourth poet to read at an American presidential inauguration, after Robert Frost in 1961, Maya Angelou in 1993 and Miller Williams in 1997. The announcement of her selection was favorably received by her fellow poets Maya Angelou, Rita Dove, Paul Muldoon, and