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4.07 AVERAGE
4.07 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
Questo era il mio primo approccio a Baudelaire e sono rimasto piacevolmente colpito. Alcune poesie mi hanno scatenato emozioni e sensazioni che avevo ormai dimenticato o che non avevo neppure mai realizzato. Sono riuscito a trovarmi in molte di queste poesie.
Alcune invece le ho trovate un po' più ostiche e non adatte a me, motivo per il quale ho infine deciso di dare 4.25 stelle a questo libro anziché 5.
Lo consiglierei sicuramente, anche come primo approccio alla poesia.
Alcune invece le ho trovate un po' più ostiche e non adatte a me, motivo per il quale ho infine deciso di dare 4.25 stelle a questo libro anziché 5.
Lo consiglierei sicuramente, anche come primo approccio alla poesia.
challenging
dark
emotional
«y mirando a los cielos caigo en hoyos profundos.
Pero dice la voz, consolándome así:
"¡No renuncies jamás a tus sueños, los cuerdos
nada saben del sueño admirable de un loco"»
***
«el horror que desvela al que sueña en prisión,
tú eres eso, Alma mía, la de sueños oscuros,
la que asfixia lo Real entre cuatro paredes»
***
«Le gustaba mirarla, con su falda blanquísima,
al correr por en medio del follaje y las ramas,
desmañada y graciosa, ocultando la pierna
si se enreda en zarzales su vestido al pasar...»
- Estoy dividida: hay poemas que me han gustado mucho; otros, nada.
Del conjunto daría una valoración positiva sobre todo por las imágenes que usa, los temas que trata, la estética de la miseria y la decadencia, pero, Baudelaire, ¡madre mía, la misoginia!
Otro clásico que tenía pendiente para la colección ✅
Pero dice la voz, consolándome así:
"¡No renuncies jamás a tus sueños, los cuerdos
nada saben del sueño admirable de un loco"»
***
«el horror que desvela al que sueña en prisión,
tú eres eso, Alma mía, la de sueños oscuros,
la que asfixia lo Real entre cuatro paredes»
***
«Le gustaba mirarla, con su falda blanquísima,
al correr por en medio del follaje y las ramas,
desmañada y graciosa, ocultando la pierna
si se enreda en zarzales su vestido al pasar...»
- Estoy dividida: hay poemas que me han gustado mucho; otros, nada.
Del conjunto daría una valoración positiva sobre todo por las imágenes que usa, los temas que trata, la estética de la miseria y la decadencia, pero, Baudelaire, ¡madre mía, la misoginia!
Otro clásico que tenía pendiente para la colección ✅
Erityistä kiitosta alkutekstin ja tulkinnan vuoropuhelusta näiden runojen parissa! Alusta loppuun muovautuva harvinaislaatuinen runokirja tosiaan!
Poetry is hard to review because most of the time nowadays, it comes down to personal preference. However, one can say a few things about this particular collection that are important for the overall development of poetry without liking a single poem in this collection.
On that note, here are some of the changes brought by this poetry collection:
a) This was one of the first conceptual poetry collections, one where the poems were interconnected by the theme of the collection and continuing on to one another "in the journey of life". Main themes being decadence of life(presented by the gruesome imagery like rotting corpses, and overall physical and spiritual decay), eroticism, emphasis on sin(the original sin, and through life via substance abuse, sex, etc), and death.
b) As one might guess, to express such a variety of “new” topics Baudelaire incorporated words and phrases that weren’t used in the literary language, he changed the vocabulary of poetics and he liberated the verse of any metrical restrain.
c) The literary techniques he used such as universal analogy, synesthesia, and the use of a symbol (seen in his poem “Bonds/Correspondences” where life is presented as a forest of symbols that one must encrypt) that heavily influenced the future generation of poets = the symbolists(A.Rimbaud, P.Verlaine, S. Mallarme).
The collection is divided into 6 parts and a foreword(a poem “To the reader”, which is arguable, one of the most well known from this collection), each part is following a different theme, which all tie together by the central ones abovementioned. Those parts are titled:
Spleen and Ideal
Parisian scenes
Wine
Flowers of evil
Revolt
Death
From the struggles of a poor writer and the presentation of how society views the writer(poems like “Benediction” “The Albatross”), the Hausmann Parisian restoration(“The Swan”), the description of erotic love(“The Balcony”) to the poems where one indulges in addictive substances, the scandalous praise to all the rebels(“The Litanies of Satan” “Cain and Abel”) and death as the final destination of life(“The voyage”) – Baudelaire touches almost every topic. Finally, I present one of my favorite poems from the collection(along with “Correspondences”):
The Balcony
Mother of memories, queen of paramours,
Yourself are all my pleasure, all my duty;
You will recall caresses that were yours
And fireside evenings in their warmth and beauty.
Mother of memories, queen of paramours.
On eves illumined by the light of coal,
The balcony beneath a rose-veiled sky,
Your breast how soft! Your heart how good and whole!
We spoke eternal things that cannot die —
On eves illumined by the light of coal!
How splendid sets the sun of a warm evening!
How deep is space! the heart how full of power!
When, queen of the adored, towards you leaning,
I breathed the perfume of your blood in flower.
How splendid sets the sun of a warm evening!
The evening like an alcove seemed to thicken,
And as my eyes astrologised your own,
Drinking your breath, I felt sweet poisons quicken,
And in my hands your feet slept still as stone.
The evening like an alcove seemed to thicken.
I know how to resuscitate dead minutes.
I see my past, its face hid in your knees.
How can I seek your languorous charm save in its
Own source, your heart and body formed to please.
I know how to resuscitate dead minutes.
These vows, these perfumes, and these countless kisses,
Reborn from gulfs that we could never sound,
Will they, like suns, once bathed in those abysses,
Rejuvenated from the deep, rebound —
These vows, these perfumes, and these countless kisses?
— Roy Campbell, Poems of Baudelaire (New York: Pantheon Books, 1952)
Ps. Update: I passed the exam, and in other words, tldr: you can thank Baudelaire for today’s instagram poetry(along with Whitman who freed the verse entirely).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Speed reading for my upcoming exam, Baudelaire is still great but what's even greater is my ability to stay up until 8AM reading and not passing out from the lack of sleep. Review to come sometime in july/august.
On that note, here are some of the changes brought by this poetry collection:
a) This was one of the first conceptual poetry collections, one where the poems were interconnected by the theme of the collection and continuing on to one another "in the journey of life". Main themes being decadence of life(presented by the gruesome imagery like rotting corpses, and overall physical and spiritual decay), eroticism, emphasis on sin(the original sin, and through life via substance abuse, sex, etc), and death.
b) As one might guess, to express such a variety of “new” topics Baudelaire incorporated words and phrases that weren’t used in the literary language, he changed the vocabulary of poetics and he liberated the verse of any metrical restrain.
c) The literary techniques he used such as universal analogy, synesthesia, and the use of a symbol (seen in his poem “Bonds/Correspondences” where life is presented as a forest of symbols that one must encrypt) that heavily influenced the future generation of poets = the symbolists(A.Rimbaud, P.Verlaine, S. Mallarme).
The collection is divided into 6 parts and a foreword(a poem “To the reader”, which is arguable, one of the most well known from this collection), each part is following a different theme, which all tie together by the central ones abovementioned. Those parts are titled:
Spleen and Ideal
Parisian scenes
Wine
Flowers of evil
Revolt
Death
From the struggles of a poor writer and the presentation of how society views the writer(poems like “Benediction” “The Albatross”), the Hausmann Parisian restoration(“The Swan”), the description of erotic love(“The Balcony”) to the poems where one indulges in addictive substances, the scandalous praise to all the rebels(“The Litanies of Satan” “Cain and Abel”) and death as the final destination of life(“The voyage”) – Baudelaire touches almost every topic. Finally, I present one of my favorite poems from the collection(along with “Correspondences”):
The Balcony
Mother of memories, queen of paramours,
Yourself are all my pleasure, all my duty;
You will recall caresses that were yours
And fireside evenings in their warmth and beauty.
Mother of memories, queen of paramours.
On eves illumined by the light of coal,
The balcony beneath a rose-veiled sky,
Your breast how soft! Your heart how good and whole!
We spoke eternal things that cannot die —
On eves illumined by the light of coal!
How splendid sets the sun of a warm evening!
How deep is space! the heart how full of power!
When, queen of the adored, towards you leaning,
I breathed the perfume of your blood in flower.
How splendid sets the sun of a warm evening!
The evening like an alcove seemed to thicken,
And as my eyes astrologised your own,
Drinking your breath, I felt sweet poisons quicken,
And in my hands your feet slept still as stone.
The evening like an alcove seemed to thicken.
I know how to resuscitate dead minutes.
I see my past, its face hid in your knees.
How can I seek your languorous charm save in its
Own source, your heart and body formed to please.
I know how to resuscitate dead minutes.
These vows, these perfumes, and these countless kisses,
Reborn from gulfs that we could never sound,
Will they, like suns, once bathed in those abysses,
Rejuvenated from the deep, rebound —
These vows, these perfumes, and these countless kisses?
— Roy Campbell, Poems of Baudelaire (New York: Pantheon Books, 1952)
Ps. Update: I passed the exam, and in other words, tldr: you can thank Baudelaire for today’s instagram poetry(along with Whitman who freed the verse entirely).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Speed reading for my upcoming exam, Baudelaire is still great but what's even greater is my ability to stay up until 8AM reading and not passing out from the lack of sleep. Review to come sometime in july/august.
Baudelaire's masterwork is the perfect example of successful modern poetry, and it probably did more, for better or worse, to define the American view of the French temperament than any other work. Baudelaire's gorgeously grimy imagery perfectly communicates the mindset of a disaffected schoolboy in a big, corrupt city in a way that no one else would be capable of until after WWI. As Baudelaire pushes his way deeper into the dregs of society, finding beauty not among, but IN the filth of moral degradation, the reader truly learns to relish the bittersweet apathy of gutter life. Read it, then read [b:Naked Lunch|7437|Naked Lunch|William S. Burroughs|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1219259455s/7437.jpg|4055].
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A