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Essay / "Baudelaire's Albatross and The Changing Role of the Poet once claimed that Baudelaire had "found a way to inject new life into Romanticism" with the publication of his magnum opus, Les Fleurs du Mal. However, the novelty that Baudelaire was supposed to introduce into ostensibly Romantic poetry was essentially the. reflection of a changing social environment This was a new characterization of the role of the poet, as demonstrated in Baudelaire's poem “Say no to plagiarism”. violent video should not be banned”? Get the original essay Baudelaire represents a shift toward modernity that redefines the poet as a marginalized outcast and not a public spokesperson The poet's art is demystified in the midst of a. school of thought which also contributed to the rise of state secularism, atheism and modern impiety in general. This de-sanctification, in conjunction with other modern malaises such as a socio-economic system based increasingly on the relative doldrums of specialization, heralded a deficiency of the soul and an increasingly weariness of the spirit. common conditions known as boredom. The confident poet is subject to harassment from the masses for his values, in the face of very modern moralities and industrial utility which have caused deep discontent among these masses. The Coleridian poet and visionary is dead and in his place remains an ardent defender of art; the misunderstood and erudite, hobbling awkwardly among a people newly absorbed in the deadly depths of boredom; one that is essentially an albatross displaced from its native, mysteriously infinite elements of sky and sea, and transferred into an earthly materiality (or in this case, an extension of the earth, in the form of a ship). On earth, his virtues are seen as flaws and his “gentle” nature (line 3) makes him prone to abuse from people looking for fun and distraction. “The Albatross” appears third in Baudelaire’s founding collection of verses, after a note “To the Reader” and a “Bénédiction”. The poem obviously still deals with broad, encompassing and introductory themes that Baudelaire wished to highlight as part of the fundamental principles of his transformative text. The titular bird is decidedly analogous to the "Poet" (13) in very general terms, and is described as ungainly and "unseemly" (10), tripping over its own "great white wings" (8) or poetic and aesthetic. thought processes, when immersed in a finite material reality of the ship, or in practical questions of the 19th century. These immense wings which appear to sailors as nothing more than “useless oars” (8) in the utilitarian context of the ship are precisely what, in the poetically infinite element of the sky, allows the albatross to “[mock] the archers, [and loves] a stormy day” (18). Or, to complete the analogy, they are the wings that allow the poet to overcome criticism and contemplate the sublime. This correlation between the poet and the albatross first appears as a timeless description of the poet who has always been a "parent in the world." clouds” (13) and inevitably awkward in more mundane company. This poem seems to pay homage to Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" in its use and even elevation of the albatross. However, what is really at stake in this poem is Baudelaire's subtle analogical distancing from the affected folkloric resonance of Romanticism in his fable-like redefinition of the modern poet. A brief,.
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