Inspirational power of Paris in the lyric art of Baudelaire

Abstract

Baudelaire who has always had a passion for Paris, tries to reflect different aspects of the city which is at various times considered both paradise and a lovely inferno. The poet who is very sensitive to the formal changes influencing the capital city thanks to the contribution of Baron Haussmann, sets out to explore all neighborhoods, the long and wide boulevards of the city in order to unveil all the rich treasures of life, in which evil, misery and eternal solitude are dominant. In this world of analogy between colors, perfumes and voices, the artist who has his mind set on the spleen and the ideal which constitute two different dimensions of his sensitivity, finds a profitable source providing suitable conditions to create poems which exalt the contrast between dream and reality. In this city which is encircled by materials of construction, the poet identifies himself sometimes with an albatros, which is the symbol of exile, with a swan dreaming of the beautiful lake where he was born and with a real magician trying to find the duality ( nailed down to the ground and aspiring after infinity) in his existence. He describes diurnal and nocturnal Paris where beauty appears as an angel and a devil in order to grasp the mystery which is one of the features of beauty and to forget the heavy burden of the time which is fostered by human life.