News at Eleven: [Arthur] Rimbaud thought that the way to do it

was in prose (as [John] Ashbery points out, Rimbaud did not invent the "prose poem" but he may have very well invented the term). Forty-one of the 43 poems in the book are prose poems. Two are what we call today "free verse." Few books of poems have been as influential as Illuminations, not only in the world of literature, but in the world of visual arts and beyond; everything from symbolism to surrealism to cubism can trace its roots back to Rimbaud. But reading the book again today, the form of the prose poem gives Illuminations not only a slightly dusty feel, but a curious quality that I can only describe as temporal uniformity.

Rimbaud likely chose the form of the prose poem for reactionary, if not wholly revolutionary, reasons.

from National Post: La Vie en Prose

~~~~~~~~~~~