Caught in the Middle: Baudelaire’s Perpetual Swing

“Rhythm and rhyme answer man’s immortal need for monotony and symmetry, as opposed to the vanity and danger of inspiration.” –Charles Baudelaire

Baudelaire mocks order and structure as boring, yet he knows spontaneity is ultimately futile and misleading. It is not that man needs order as much as the structural bent is innate in mankind. It is impossible to live in this world and fail to notice the architectural tendency in man’s mind. There are roads, houses, buildings, and cities all around us. These are the products of logical thoughts and plans. Baudelaire understood that without logical thought applied, no structure could result. His poems — especially his prose poems — are totally without structure. They are the results of his spontaneity. They are piles of random feelings and the offshoots of his imagination. Although he criticizes inspiration as vain and dangerous, he was completely dependent on it. Like most of the 19th century French poets, he refused to lift his pen when uninspired. But how can a man become successful as a writer if he only works when he “feels it”? Baudelaire’s posthumous fame makes perfect sense when one ponders the world which has lauded him. The more escapist our world becomes, — the more it prefers dreams over reality — the more beloved such poetry and art becomes. Baudelaire knew that if he didn’t work, he’d enjoy no success. He knew no success as he lived. He knew that work wasn’t always, or necessarily, “fun,” but he opted for the vain and dangerous path of sheer spontaneity, despite his professed criticism of it. Regardless of the way he lived, I am pleased that he understood such things.