Liberal Arts Blog — Charles Baudelaire: “The First Modernist”
Liberal Arts Blog — Tuesday is the Joy of Literature, Language, Religion, and Culture Day
Today’s Topic: Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867): “The First Modernist”
Baudelaire is sometimes considered to be one of the greatest French poets of all time. Arthur Rimbaud called him “the King of Poets, a True God.” TS Eliot would write that he “learnt his art under the aegis of Baudelaire and the Baudelairian lineage of poets.” His classic work is “Les Fleurs Du Mal” (The Flowers of Evil) first published in 1857, Today, a very random selection of quotes and three portraits. Personally, while I admire his genius, I never went to the trouble of learning any of his poems by heart as I did with the work of Lafontaine, Verlaine, Lamartine, de Vigny…Who is your favorite French poet? Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.
THE LIVING COLUMNS, THE FOREST OF SYMBOLS, CARNIVOROUS TIME
1. “Nature is a temple where living columns let slip from time to time uncertain words.” (La nature est un temple ou de vivants piliers laissent parfois sortir de confuses paroles.)
2. “Man finds his way through forests of symbols which regard him with familiar gazes.” (L’homme y passe a travers des forets de symboles qui l’observent avec des regards familiers.)
3. “Oh pain! oh pain! Time eats life.” (O douleur, o douleur, le temps mange la vie.)
MUD INTO GOLD, THE SWEETEST PLEASURE, THE BEST METAPHOR FOR WORK
1.“You gave me mud, I made gold.” (Tu m’as donne do la boue, j’en ai fait de l’or.)
2. “There is no pleasure more sweet than to surprise a man by giving him more than he expected.” (Il n’est de plaisir plus doux que de surprendre un homme en lui donnant plus qu’il n’espere.)
3. “What is work but the salt that keeps our souls mummified?” (Le travail, n’est pas le sel qui conserve nos ames momies?)
STORMS, HYPOCRITES, RAPE, DAGGERS
1. “Storms rejuvenate flowers.” (l’orage rajeunit les fleurs)
2. “There all is order and beauty only, splendor, peace, and pleasure.” (La, tout n’est qu’ordre et beaute, luxe, calme, et volupte.)
3. “Hippocrite reader! My likeness! My brother!” (Hippocrite lecteur! Mon semblable! Mon frere!” (quoted in TS Eliot’s “The Wasteland.”)
NB: “If rape, poison, daggers, arson, Have not yet embroidered with their pleasing designs the banal canvas of our pitiable lives, it is because our souls, alas, are not daring enough.” (Si viol, le poison, le poignard, l’incendie, n’ont pas encor brode de leurs plaisants dessins Le canevas banal de nos piteux destins, C’est que notre ame, helas! n’est pas assez hardie.”)
BIOGRAPHICAL TIDBITS — parents, life style, artistic and literary circles — “I think there can be few examples of a life as dilapidated as mine” (Letter to his mother)
1. Born in Paris, baptized in the Saint Suplice Church, attended the Lycee Louis Le Grand. His father, a senior civil servant, was 34 years older than his mother and died when Charles was young. His stepfather was an ambassador. He had a very close and problematic relationship with his mother.
2. Charles was a dandy, frequented prostitutes, and squandered away his inheritance and “regularly begged his mother for money throughout his career, often promising that a lucrative publishing contract or journalistic commission was just around the corner.”
3. “He often moved from one lodging to another to escape creditors. He undertook many projects that he was unable to complete, though he did finish translations of stories by Edgar Allan Poe.”
NB: “Baudelaire was an active participant in the artistic life of his times. As critic and essayist, he wrote extensively and perceptively about the luminaries and themes of French culture. He was frank with friends and enemies, rarely took the diplomatic approach and sometimes responded violently verbally, that often undermined his cause. His associations were numerous, including Gustave Courbet, Honore Daumier, Felicien Rops, Franz Liszt, Champfleury, Victor Hugo, Gustave Flaubert, and Balzac.”
Charles Baudelaire — Wikipedia
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charles_Baudelaire
Portrait of Charles Baudelaire — Wikipedia
The Best French Language Poets of All Time
ATTACHMENTS BELOW:
#1 A graphic guide to justice (9 metaphors on one page).
#2 “39 Songs, Prayers, and Poems: the Keys to the Hearts of Seven Billion People” — Adams House Senior Common Room Presentation, 11/17/20
PDF with headlines — Google Drive
YOUR TURN
Please share the coolest thing you learned this week related to words, language, literature, religion, culture. Or, even better, the coolest or most important thing you learned in your life related to Words, Language, Literature (eg. quotes, poetry, vocabulary) that you have not yet shared.
This is your chance to make someone else’s day. Or to cement in your own mind something that you might otherwise forget. Or to think more deeply than otherwise about something dear to your heart. Continuity is key to depth of thought.
