The Flowers of Evil

Baudelaire was the first really modern poet and the finest French poet of the 19th century. His direct and indirect contributions to modern literature are immense.Flowers of Evil: A Selection includes 53 poems that the editors believe best reflect the entire work and those, in their judgement, have been most skillfully translated into English.Baudelaire tries to draw beauty from evil in The Flowers of Evil. He believed that contemporary poetry ought to express life's artificial and contradictory aspects.The goal of life is to avoid reality as much as possible through wine, opium, travel, and passion. Baudelaire frequently used sensual imagery to capture the fervent emotion of the ideal.Baudelaire's primary source of symbolism is women. They represent both the steady ascent toward Satan and the elevation toward God, as he put it. His mind is illuminated by women, but they are also terrible vampires that amplify his spleen, or bad temper.A potential love interest in "To a Passerby" turns out to be a dreadful demise. Because Baudelaire frequently uses religious and fantastical images, death seems more likely now. The speaker is left on his own to think horrifying thoughts about himself and to wish for a comforting death.