Draft:Paysage

Paysage (English: Landscape) is a poem by Charles Baudelaire published in 1861. It is the first poem in the "Tableaux parisiens" section of Les Fleurs du mal.

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Form

The poem is composed of two strophes of alexandrines, of 8 and 18 lines respectively. The rhymes are coupled, and the respect the alternation, traditional in classic French poetry, between feminine rhymes (ending in a silent e) and masculine rhymes.

Analysis

A poem in two parts

Inspiration

The poet is inspired by his environment: the semantic fields of nature and music are prominent, which gestures towards a lyricism nevertheless controlled in its impressions and its emotions. The term eclogue has roots in Antiquity. Words connecting to the idea of elevation are also present. The term "astrologers" in the second line suggests Baudelaire's idea of vertical correspondences. These correspondences, which Baudelaire's treats in his poem "Correspondances," are a symbolic language by which eternal truths communicate themselves to the poet through nature. The poet's inspiration comes from his perception of his environment, which he accordingly cherishes and wishes to conserve. The poet therefore expresses his disgust for the destruction of nature and hopes to conserve it as it is. This idea of inspiration founded on nature was an important part of the Romantic movement, but Baudelaire plays with it, exceeds it, and transfigures it in dealing with Paris.

This first part of the poem, which is independent of the stanza break and devoted to the exterior landscape, contrasts with the second, which deals with the internal landscape.

Creation

The second part of the poem deals with the interior landscape. This is present from the very first line of the poem through a reference to poetic composition, an act indispensable for the poet in his struggle to detach himself from carnal temptations (sex, drugs, alcohol). This is inherent in the very etymology of the word poetry, which derives from the ancient Greek poiein, meaning "to make." Terms with connotations of creation abound. The act of creation is the reproduction of the natural universe, embellished with a personal touch. The poet here is cast as demiurge, il atteint une reconstitution mentale pure retranscrite par la puissance de l'écriture, il passe from contemplation to creation.

The beauty of the created universe is cast in relief by numerous techniques. The use of the plural for "the springtimes, the summers, the autumns" derives from an idea of eternity accentuated by "morning and evening"; the device of chiasmus is also deployed to this effect:

Of drawing a sun from my heart, and making

From my burning thoughts a warm atmosphere.

This idealization is effected also through the use of terms like "bluish" and "idyll."

Opposition

The symmetry between the two parts allows for an echo effect: lines 22-21 respond to lines 5-6.

My two hands on my chin, high up in my attic,

I'll see the workshop singing and chattering;

...

The Riot, hammering in vain at my window,

Will not make me raise my head from my desk.

Likewise, the beauty of the new universe is contrasted with the banality of the real, for example, "my fairy palaces" contrasts with "attic," and "Gardens, fountains" contrasts with "rivers of coal."

A refusal to engage

In lines 21-22, the poet expresses clearly his refusal to engage with the life of the city and the outer world:

L'Émeute, tempêtant vainement à ma vitre,

Ne fera pas lever mon front de mon pupitre ;

(The Riot, hammering in vain at my window, / Will not make me raise my head from my desk.)

Baudelaire's allitération of "t", a dry and resonant sound, imitates the hammering of the Riot at the poet's window. The Riot here references a precise historical context: the French Revolution of 1848 and the proclamation of the Second Republic.

The poet as alchemist

The lexical field of the modern, industrial city is prominent in the poem. However, the terms are embellished. The belltowers become musical with "hymns," the workshop "sings and chatters," the chimneys and belltowers become through a metaphor "those masts of the city," and "the rivers of coal rise to the heavens." Thus the poet embellishes what is trivial, by an alchemical process which extracts beauty from what is ugly. This process is called sublimation.