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Eyes Of The Poor Baudelaire

Decent Essays

The Eyes of the Poor When I first heard the name Charles Baudelaire a few weeks ago, I just thought of him as another historical author that we had to learn about in an English class. Little did I know, how his work would affect me in the next weeks. Baudelaire coined the term modernity which was a period of ongoing change and transition to urban and industrial life. As a person who believes technology is destroying communication skills, it was interesting to see how Baudelaire faced the same troubles through urbanization instead of technology. A piece of Baudelaire’s piece that stood out to me was The Eyes of the Poor in his famous work called Paris Spleen. Baudelaire used the word ‘spleen’ in his work to show a sense of disgust with everything. …show more content…

In this paragraph, the poem switches from the idea of companionship to urban life, modernity, desire, politics, and economics. Baudelaire uses symbolism, strong imagery, and descriptive words in the next paragraph about the cafe that the narrator and companion are sitting at. Baudelaire claims the cafe was a sight to behold by claiming, “the cafe was sparkled. Even the gaslight displayed all the ardor of an opening night. “ While reading the poem, I also got the sense that Baudelaire was symbolizing the cafe as the wealthy in society. The cafe seems to embody the gluttony of people who have money to spend. Baudelaire expresses his idea of the cafe being a showcase of gluttony by stating, “Hebes and Ganymedes offering small amphoras of Bavarian cream or varicolored cones of mixed ices; all history and mythology in the service of gluttony.” The first time I read this sentence, I was confused as to why there was greek mythology in the poem. I then thought about how the mythology may be a metaphor for something related to the gluttony of the …show more content…

The narrator realizes that he and this woman share different views which is ironic because at the beginning of the poem, the narrator wants their, “two souls to be one.” Baudelaire adds the last twist in the poem by expressing the external beauty of the lady companion that the narrator desires to have a deep connection with. The narrator comes back to harsh reality with the lady asking for the poor to be kicked out of her sight. Baudelaire is saying that true companionship is difficult and hard to find. Also, since the narrator doesn’t tell his companion, the one person who he promised, “ to share all our thoughts with one another and hence our two souls will be one.” , Baudelaire is claiming that people rarely take action against gluttony. Baudelaire’s stance on modernity seems to be conservative since, he is not calling people into action rather opening their eyes to the problems of society. Baudelaire’s goal of this poem was to enlighten his readers, but not force them into

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