Selected PoemsThe poems of Charles Baudelaire are filled with explicit and unsettling imagery, depicting with intensity every day subjects ignored by French literary conventions of his time. 'Tableaux parisiens' portrays the brutal life of Paris's thieves, drunkards and prostitutes amid the debris of factories and poorhouses. In love poems such as 'Le Beau Navire', flights of lyricism entwine with languorous eroticism, while prose poems such as 'La Chambre Double' deal with the agonies of artistic creation and mortality. With their startling combination of harsh reality and sublime beauty, formal ingenuity and revolutionary poetic language, these poems, including a generous selection from Les Fleurs du Mal, show Baudelaire as one of the most influential poets of the nineteenth century. |
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âme amid Baudelaire Baudelaire's beauté beautiful blood blue body burning called carcass century Charles Baudelaire charm chiens ciel cœur cold dark darkness dead dear death deep depths desire dogs dreams evening everything eyes Fleurs Fleurs du Mal flowers French give gold head heart heaven heavy hélas Hippogriff horror indecency into the depths intoxicating Jeanne Duval kisses language light living longue misère look memory mistress morning never night no doubt once parfum perfume perhaps pleasure poems poet poetic poetry poison poor praise prends pitié Race reader remorse rhyme Satan scents sleep soir soleil sometimes soul Spleen strange suffering sweet syllables T. S. Eliot tears tender heart things vanquished verse volupté wine woman words wounded heart writing yeux