The Arcades Project - Operi

Explore the question whether a connection exists between the works of the
allegorical imagination and the correspondances. In any case, these are two wholly
distinct sources for Baudelaire's production. That the first of them has a very
considerable share in the specific qualities of Iris poetry Gumot be doubted. The
nexus of meanings might be akin to that of the fibers of spun yarn. If we can
distinguish between spinning and weaving activity in poets, then the allegorical
imagination must be classed with the forrner.-On the other hand, it is not
impossible that the correspondences play at least some role here, insofar as a
word, in its way, calls forth an image; thus, the image could determine the
meaning of the word, or else the word that of the image. [J24,3]
Disappearance of allegory in Victor Hugo. [J24,4]
Do flowers lack souls? Is tlns an implication of the title Les Fleurs du mal? In other
words, are flowers a symbol of the whore? Or is tlns title meant to recall flowers
to their tme place? Pertinent here is the letter accompanying the two cripuscule
poems wlrich Bandelaire sent to Fernand Desnoyers for Iris Fontainebleau:
Paysages, legendes, souvenirs,fo,ntaisies (1855). [J24,5]
Utter detachment of Poe from great poetry. For one Fouque, he would give fifty
Molieres. The Iliad and Sophocles leave lllm cold. Tlris perspective would accord
perfectly with the theory of I art pour lar!. What was Baudelaire's attitude?
[J24,6]
With the mailing of the 'Crepuscules" to Fm'nand Desnoym's for his Fontainebleau
(Paris, 1855): "My dear Desnoyers: You ask me for some verses for your
little anthology, verses about Nature, I believe; about forests, great oak trees,
verdure, insects-and perhaps even the sun? But you know perfectly well that I
can't become sentimental about vegetation and that my soul rebels against this
strange new religion . . . . I shall never believe that the souls of the gods Uve in
plants . . . . I have always thought, even, that there was something irritating and
impudent about Nature in its fresh and rampant state. "126 Cited in A. Sechc, La
Vie des Flew's dlL mal , pp. 109-110. [.J24a,l]
"Les Aveugles" : Crepet gives as source for this poem of Baudelaire's
a passage from "Des Ve tters Eckfenster"