Short Story Criticism | Baudelaire, Charles - Renée Riese Hubert (essay date 1970)

Renée Riese Hubert (essay date 1970)

SOURCE: "Contexts of Twilight in Baudelaire's 'Petits poèmes en prose,'" in Orbis Litterarum, Vol. 25, 1970, pp. 352-60.

[Hubert is a German-born poet and educator specializing in contemporary art and literature. In the following essay, she examines the symbolic uses of light, darkness, and color in Petits poèmes en prose.]

Even if its effect and function seem more limited than in Les Fleurs du mal, even if it never suggests spiritual aspiration as in "Bénédiction", light is present in most of the Petits poèmes en prose. Nothing offers escape, in"Le Fou et la Vénus", from the dazzling sun whose watchful eye never blinks. Overpowered by this force, nature voices no protest; not even the murmur of waters can disturb the silence. But muteness does not imply the reduction of nature to an object. The word ecstasy ("L'extase universelle des choses") refers to sensuous pleasure while...

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