Baudelaire’s Poetry Is Primarily a Poetry of the Body. Discuss.

In the collection of Poems “Les fleures du Mal”1 by Charles Baudelaire, we see how he employs the depiction of beauty in women throughout his poetry to portray it as mainly a poetry of the body. In his collection we come across two different visions of the woman’s body: the glorification and blissful memory of her, seen in “Le Balcon” or the absolute disgust and repulsion seen in “Une Charogne.” To Baudelaire interpreting and writing about women and their body is clearly the primary inspiration to his poetry. Similarly though, his poems suggest multiple themes open to interpretation; like the power to put onto paper his experiences gathered through traveling and particular memories he does not want to fade, the juxtaposition of his two worlds, Spleen et Idéal, and the perfectly classical structure of the poems; seeing as he was brought up with a classical knowledge of poem writing. Baudelaire’s Poetry is therefore a dichotomy separating the real world form his distorted obsessive fantasy of it influenced by the exotic beauty of the Mediterranean, alcohol and drugs. Throughout Baudelaire’s poetry we see how women become his main source of symbolism, acting as an intermediary between Spleen and Idéal, enhancing the readers levels of perception and provocation. In “Les fleures du Mal” Baudelaire literally tries to extract beauty from ‘Evil.’ This is seen in his poetry through the evocation of the paradoxical and artificial aspects of life. This evident opposition and contrast between the two worlds leads to his understanding of Spleen and Idéal. On one hand, his vision of the world is seen through his poems concerning ‘Spleen,’ where death, solitude, murder and disease are predominant. In poem XXV - “Tu mettrais l’univers entier dans ta ruelle” there is a complete de-sanctification of the woman “femme impure!”2 Baudelaire explores the ambiguity of women’s beauty by depicting women as promiscuous and skilled at love making

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Bibliography: 1 Baudelaire Les fleures du Mal, published by Bristol Classical Press, General editor John H. Betts, French texts series editor Edward Freeman, edited with introduction and notes by Graham Chesters . 2 peom XXV, page 25, line 2. 3 poem XXV, page 25, line 3 . 4 poem XXV, page 25, line 8. 5 poem XXV, page 25, line 16. 6 poem XXV, page 25, line 18. 7 poem XXVI Le Balcon, page 34, line 1. 8 poem XXVI Le Balcon, page 34, line 1 and 5 . 9 poem XXVI Le Balcon, page 34, line 2. 10 poem XXVI Le Balcon, page 34, line 3. 11 poem XXVI Le Balcon, page 35, line 14 12 poem XXVI Le Balcon, page 35, line 4 13 poem XXVI Le Balcon, page 35, line 8 14 poem XXVI Le Balcon, page 35, line 8 15 poem XXVI Le Balcon, page 35, line 13 16 poem XXVI Le Balcon, page 35, line 30 17 poem XXIX Une Charogne, page 28, line 3 and 4 18 poem XXIX Une Charogne, page 28, line 5 19 poem XXIX Une Charogne, page 29, line 17 and 37 BIBLIOGRAPHY: Baudelaire Les fleures du Mal, published by Bristol Classical Press, General editor John H. Betts, French texts series editor Edward Freeman, edited with introduction and notes by Graham Chesters (published in 1995 by Bristol Classics Press) An Anthology of Modern French Poetry, selected and edited by Peter Broome and Graham Chesters, published by Cambridge University Press 1976 Baudelaire and the Poetics of Craft (1988) Graham Chesters Notes taken in lectures and seminar’s for FR1108, Professor John O’Brian. L’univers Poetique de Baudelaire, by Lloyd James Austin, published in Paris, by Mercure de France 1956 The Appreciation of modern French Poetry 1850-1950 by Peter Broome and Graham Chesters, published by Cambridge University Press 1976. Samuel Taylor Coleridge “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” taken from Coleridge’s poetry and prose: authoritive texts/criticism, published by Norton in 2004.