The role of death in the poem of Baudelaire

My M.A dissertation titled “the role of death in the poem of Baudelaire is in the field of poetry. To answer the question how is death portrayed in the poems of Baudelaire and what is its signification, i have chosen four poems from his well known work “Les fleurs du mal”/ “The flowers of evil”. This collection has been published first in 1857 which comprises of 94 poems, divided into five parts: Spleen and Ideal, Flower of evil, Revolte, Wine, Death. Then it was published in 1861,with 129 poems, divided into 6 parts by adding “Parisian landscape” after “Spleen and Ideal“ and before “Wine”. The third édition of this collection was published in 1868 with 151 poems.

The poems that i have chosen are: “La mort des amants”, “La Mort des pauvres”, “La Mort des artistes”, “Rêve d’un curieux”. Baudelaire in all these four poems present a positive role of death. Death is presented by Baudelaire as a passage that discards all the trouble of one’s life. But to comprehend the theme of death and its role in one’s life through the vision of Baudelaire, it is essential to understand the endless existence of spleen in one’s life.

“Les fleurs du mal”/”The flowers of evil” evokes a world of paradox through its title. The word “mal” signifies misery, suffering, pain in one’s life which is manifested through the presence of melancholy, anxiety and fear of death. But associating the “evil” with the beauty of “flower”, Baudelaire attempts to extract the beauty from the evil. Unlike other traditional poets that describes the serene beauty of natural world to convey emotions, Baudelaire chose to convey the beauty through horrific, sinful and malignant images. Thus, the evocation of two antagonists world “Spleen and Ideal”. The existence of spleen is discovered by the presence of duality which is indeed envisaged as a tragedy of human existence. ”Spleen” signifies all that is wrong with the world like despair, death, solitude, murder. In contrast, “Ideal” represents a transcendence over the reality of spleen. Due to its simultaneous existence, the person is consistently attracted by maleficence and beneficence. When stuck between the two poles, a person experiences an alienation and a sadist contemplation of himself. Therefore, Baudelaire amplifies the hostility of one’s spleen with the failure of his ideal world.

Baudelaire even exemplifies women serving him as an intermediary between the ideal and spleen. There are love cycles in his collection of poem which includes; the Madame Sabatier cycle, inspired by spiritual love; the Jeanne Duval cycle, inspired by physical love of exotic woman; the Marie Daubrun cycle, inspired by the love that comes in later years. But in the course of time, Baudelaire manifests how they will be compensating later by complexities and ambiguities of maturity by providing him ephemeral love and an early death. According to him, women embody the elevation towards god and also gradually descend one towards satan, resulting therefore in the moderate misogyny.

In the “Parisian landscape”, Baudelaire continues to expose the dark underground spleen of the city. Paris has become a city of vices by its rapid metamorphose in time passage. In order to escape from the harsh reality of the existence, Baudelaire attempts to find the temporary source of evasion, which for him served undeniably as a source of creating an artificial paradise, notably, wine, opium, drugs, dream. But these have an ephemeral effect. It replaces soon the ideal life back to spleenful life. Hence, Baudelaire’s poetry evokes at the end, finally, the death as a hope. He emphasizes the proximity of death through the correspondence of fantasy and religious imagery. Baudelaire concludes that death only is the truth. It makes to perceive a charming sky by showing its infinity and indeed causing a release from an oppressive reality. Through death, Baudelaire exhorts the generation of impeccable innovation and imagination and urges to find the beauty in art after death. Death is the passage that will bring life in dead, enlighten the dark with ideal light, eternalize love for lovers, fulfill needs of poor, bring perfection in art for artists and give them a new aimable life. Man have a final access to the idyllic space after death.

The section titled “La Mort” adopts the familiar pattern of ecstasy. In the first poem ”La Mort des amants“ the two lovers are dreaming of eternal and spiritual love after death. In the second, “La Mort des pauvres” the poet shows death as a source of consolation, peace and a hope of ideal stay of poor in heaven after death. In the third “La mort des artistes” death will help the artists to find the perfection of art. And in the fourth poem, “Rêve d’un curieux” the poet is tempted and fascinated at the thought of what death may bring. In all these poems, there is a sense of life after death.

Today, i will be presenting an analysis of “La Mort des amants”. “La Mort des amants” opens the last section of “La Mort”. This poem as the title indicates talks about the death of two lovers. Baudelaire in his poem presents spiritual love which can exists even beyond death and which indeed cannot be corrupted during life. Baudelaire incarnates death as a symbol of eternal love.

This poem is a sonnet which comprises of two quatrain, two tercet, composed of ten syllables. Both quatrains have alternative rythme. The poet chooses to rhythm “tombeaux” with “beaux” and “dernières” with “lumières” to manifest the presence of two alternate ideas that the poet tries to evoke through the fusion, that is the fusion of love and of death. The association of these images of love and death of two lovers presents the possibility of sublimating their love through the passage of death.

Nous aurons des lits pleins d’odeurs légères,

Les divans profonds comme des tombeaux,

Et d’étranges fleurs sur des étagères,

In the first two lines of the first verse, Baudelaire has revealed again the two images by amalgamating them through the description of place where two lovers, that is Baudelaire and Mme Sabatier, are present. According to the conception of love, Baudelaire has created three love cycles in this collection but only in the poems dedicated to Madame Sabatier, he celebrates the spiritual, virtuous and eternal love as he tried