I read Rimbaud pretty recently. And I did it because a brother of mine who was a military and decided to make better use of his time and read as much as possible, came across a reference to the genious poet ina book by Borges. He called me and begged me to get him a book by this man who had produced his best work by age 20.
I felt embarrassed that I not read him and rushed to find something. I ended up copying some poems from the internet and printing them for my brother. That was better than nothing.
I was certainly impressed by the precocity and the tragedy of such a genious.
I think that the poet represents the best example of the human tragedy of self-exploration and historical awareness. Putting all romantic notions aside, when we approach our societies with a critical eye we get things like this.

The Gauls were the most stupid hide-flayers and hay-burners of their time.
From them, I inherit: idolatry, and love of sacrelige; - oh! all sorts of vice, anger, lechery, - terrific stuff, lechery; - lying, above all, and laziness.

_{from Bad Blood in his Season in Hell}

We can substitute Gauls for any other people and we'll get a similar evaluation.
I think Rimbaud was tormented by human nature and what society had been trying to do with it. We seem to be wired for perdition but we are expected to be angels.