"I have stretched ropes from steeple to steeple; garlands from window to window; golden chains from star to star, and I dance"
About this Quote
The intent reads like a manifesto for the voyant Rimbaud mythos: the poet as someone who rewires perception by force, who makes connections where none should hold. “Golden chains” carries a double charge: beauty and bondage. The speaker “dances,” yes, but on a network he’s also trapped himself into maintaining. The subtext is exhilaration with a shadow of compulsion: ecstasy as a high-wire act, art as self-induced vertigo.
Context matters. Rimbaud writes out of a 19th-century France thick with institutional steeples and tightening social scripts, then detonates them with a teenage appetite for elsewhere. The church is just another anchor point for his line; the home’s windows become mere pegs. He’s claiming sovereignty over symbols that usually claim sovereignty over you. The final “and I dance” lands like a shrug and a dare: after all that grandiose spanning, the payoff is motion - reckless, graceful, unexplainable - refusing to justify itself.
Quote Details
| Topic | Poetry |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Rimbaud, Arthur. (2026, January 15). I have stretched ropes from steeple to steeple; garlands from window to window; golden chains from star to star, and I dance. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-have-stretched-ropes-from-steeple-to-steeple-35638/
Chicago Style
Rimbaud, Arthur. "I have stretched ropes from steeple to steeple; garlands from window to window; golden chains from star to star, and I dance." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-have-stretched-ropes-from-steeple-to-steeple-35638/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I have stretched ropes from steeple to steeple; garlands from window to window; golden chains from star to star, and I dance." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-have-stretched-ropes-from-steeple-to-steeple-35638/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.



