Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Blog Entry 1.3 Poetry Symbolism

    Charles Baudelaire a french poet born on April 9th, 1821 and died August 31,1867.
He  became reputable  in 1857 for his famous  poetry  collection called  " The evil flowers". Baudlaires father introduced him to art , when his father passed away Baudelaire lived outside of Paris with his mother. During this  time he wrote to his mother concerning  the love he felt for her. He wrote  his first poems at a college in France . His masters noticed he was a bright student , but  cultivated moods of  witty  immorality , he became disconsolate and gloomy often introverted. In 1842  he received his family inheritance which lead him to  engage in a  lifestyle of extravaganza  that  led to  his  collapse.  Baudelaire wrote most of his poems  after he returned from the south seas between 1842 and 1846.  I found  his poem " The Ghost"  to be very  mysterious with many symbolic actions.

Symbols                           Dennotations                           Connotation

Eyes                                 Vigilance                                  gate way to the soul
Night                                Chaos                                      Death, destruction , captivity.
Moon                                Time,immortality                      Realm of conscious and unconscious
Shadows                           Dark entity                              Unconscious layers of personality
Kiss                                  Intimate contact                       Friendship, love, fellowship
Snake                                Temptation                              Destruction, evil
Cold                                  Impact                                     Uncomfortable, sensation
Tenderness                        loving                                      Caring ,understanding

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      He symbolizes fear  and sensuality  throughout the poem.   silent shadow,  feeling cold temperature over your skin,  and also with darkness. In the poem I found three symbolic stanza. The first stanza states “Softly as brown eyed angels rove I will return to thy alcove, and glide upon the night to thee, treading the shadows silently” (Charles Baudelaire). The author uses  eyes of an angel  softly  overlooking  at you while your alone in the dark. The denotative meaning of a profound  vigilance from a silent shadow.  the dennotative meaning of night is of chaos creating lots of fear . The denotative meaning of a shadow  is a dark entity   that is unexpected. The unconscious layers  of our personality reflected in shadows  are the only shadows we expect and are familiar with as part of our daily life, people barely  acknowledge shadows as they go along their daily life. When an unfamiliar shade or figure are seen we are often startled.  The dennotive meaning of moon reflects the  immortality of the ghost and  feeling  cold temperature over your skin causes fear in a sensual way.  Fear is symbolized with the icy kiss , a cold intimate touch from an invisible being can make a person feel anxiety. 
  
    The second stanza in the poem states “and I will give to thee, my own , kisses as icy as the moon, and the caresses of a snake cold gliding in the thorny brake (Charles Baudelaire). The denotative meaning of the symbolic action of a  “kisses as icy as the moon” (Charles Baudelaire).  Feeling an invisible someone or something that is very cold swiftly over your lips in the middle of the night is mysterious and unexpected. Fear is symbolized with the icy kiss , a cold intimate touch from an invisible being can make a person feel anxiety.   The dennotative meaning of snake are the caress that represent destruction or evil  in a tempting way.
The unknown and invisible cold feeling is a symbolic action in the poem. He also reflects the feeling of a slimy cold snake slithering over the person’s body; this feeling symbolizes the connotative meaning associating the cold with something slimy and unexpected over your skin.
    
     The third and fourth stanza of the poem states “and when returns the livid morn thou shalt find my place forlorn and chilly, till the falling night .Others would rule by tenderness over thy life and youthfulness, but I would conquer thee by fright!”(Charles Baudelaire). The denotative meaning of tenderness is of a loving fearful sensation   that  reflects the obsession of the ghost  coming back every night and   in which the poem states the ghost will keep the room cold throughout the night so that his presences isn't forgotten, this  is a frightening  feeling  .Especially  if you are  completely alone it becomes a total feeling of  fright , feeling defenseless and  spooked .


Works Cited
Charles Baudelaire" The Ghost" is reprinted from" The Poems and Prose Poems of Charles"
Baudelaire. “Poetry archive” Poetry Archive.com. Ed. James Huneker. New York: Brentano's, 1919.
 

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