Small prose poems

Petits prose poems is the title of a work of Charles Baudelaire. The fifty parts which compose it were written between 1855 (“the twilight of the evening”) and 1864. Forty of them appeared in various newspapers of the time; the ten following ones were posthumous between 1867 and 1869. According to a letter of 1862, Baudelaire was inspired by writing them for the example of Aloysius Bertrand.

The title Petits prose poems is often followed of a form of subtitle the spleen of Paris (which approaches the titles of two parts of the Fleurs of the Evil: " Spleen and Idéal" and " Tables parisiens"). Indeed, of alive sound, Baudelaire evoked this expression to indicate its collection which it supplemented with measurement of its inspiration and its publications. Moreover, the February 7th 1864, the newspaper Le Figaro published four parts belonging to the Petits prose poems under the title “the Spleen of Paris”. This explains the narrow association of the two titles. Since then, the collection bears these two names.

The characteristic of this work lies in the absence of follow-up between the various parts. Consequently, it can be read pages randomly. A certain recurrence of the topics will be however found: visions of Paris, spleen/melancholy. From this observation the explanation rises naturally from the subtitle.

It should be noted that the last part is a poem in worms, as to illustrate the fact that Baudelaire could always write in worms and that its prose poems were not synonymous with facility. If the author is released from the constraint of the rhyme, it must give all the same a rate/rhythm, a structure close to poetry to its writing, of fear to fall into the traditional account. As example, XXXVIIe part “the benefits of the moon” (1863) proposes a symmetry between two paragraphs: same sentences, even grammatical structure and continuity in the second paragraph of the idea of the first. In the same way, XLVIIIe part “Anywhere out the World” (Anywhere out of the world) (1867, posthumous) is built mainly around four semi Anaphore S, four short phrases based on the same idea and the same words intercalating itself between the principal paragraphs.

Contents

  • the Foreigner
  • the Despair of the old woman
  • Confiteor of the artist
  • pleasant a
  • the Room doubles
  • Each one its dream
  • the Insane one and Venus
  • the Dog and the bottle
  • the Bad Glazier
  • At one o'clock in the morning
  • the wild Woman and the small-mistress
  • Crowd
  • the Widows
  • the Old Travelling acrobat
  • the Cake, in Small prose poems, Gallimard , Paris, 1973, 2004, pp.54-56
  • the Clock
  • a Hemisphere in a hair
  • the invitation with the voyage
  • the Toy of Poor the
  • Gifts of the fairies
  • Temptations or Eros, Plutus and Glory
  • the Twilight of the evening
  • Loneliness
  • the Projects
  • Beautiful Dorothée
  • Eyes of the poor
  • a heroic death
  • the Counterfeit money
  • the Player generous
  • Twist
  • the Vocations
  • Thyrse
  • Enivrez you
  • Déjà!
  • the Windows
  • the Desire to paint
  • Benefits of the moon
  • Which is the true one?
  • a horse of race
  • the Mirror
  • the Port
  • Portraits of mistresses
  • the Gallant Gunner
  • Soup and the clouds
  • the Shooting and the cemetery
  • Perte of aureole
  • Miss Bistouri
  • Any where out off the world
  • Let us strike the poor!
  • the good Dogs
  • Epilog

External bonds

  • Spleen of Paris: Full online downloadable text
  • Lo Spleen di Parigi: Italian translation online

Random links:Martina Hingis | Molay-Littry | Robert NR. Thompson | Gift (film, 2006) | Rowland Hill (station)