The Beacons (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Charles Baudelaire
- First Published: 1857
- Type of Work: Ode
- Genres: Poetry, Lyric poetry
- Subjects: France or French people, Nineteenth century, Art or artists, God, Human race, Painting or painters, Fire, Sculpting or sculptors
The Poem
“The Beacons” uses a catalog of artists to illustrate the relation of the artist to humanity and to God. It is the sixth poem in Charles Baudelaire’s principal collection, Les Fleurs du mal, set early in “Spleen et idéal” (“Spleen and Ideal”), a section that examines the competing drives of willful degradation and artistic elevation.
In the original French, the poem was written in eleven quatrains using Alexandrines, twelve-syllable lines traditionally chosen for elevated subjects. The rhymes follow a simple, alternating abab...
[The entire page is 1591 words long]
