The journey as a metapoetic metaphor in the flowers of evil

Abstract

When Baudelaire was only twenty, he embarked on a long journey to India. The voyage would be ended at its midway point. It would forever remain as a landmark to his personal and literary trajectory. The decision made to return to Paris is interpreted, in this article, as a metaphor of the young Baudelaire’s poetic vocation. From this brief biographical history, we propose to enter this path to enlighten the poet’s literary work, in which images directly related to the voyage’s theme abound. More than a theme privileged by the poet’s sensitivity, we intend to evidence that the voyage’s image works as a metapoetical metaphor, a fundamental key to the understanding of both Flores do mal and the modern lyric poetry