The Deep Grave is the Poet's Friend - The Poetry of Charles Baudelaire - Christopher Allen's Blog

The Godfather of Goth indeed. I was fortunate enough to come across The Flowers of Evil in an Oxfam charity shop on my return to England this summer. The name Baudelaire seemed familar for some reason. Then I recalled where I had seen his name. The singer-songwriter Nick Cave had included this collection in a list of his favourite books. It was because of Nick Cave's love for Emily Dickinson that enticed me to read her poems and then fall in love with this literary form. So I surely couldn't go wrong with this.

I spent most of my time reading The Flowers of Evil on the bus. My son was attending a summer camp at a local grammar school and without a car, I needed to take public transport to take him there and collect him in the afternoons. So there I was, sitting at the back reading poems entitled The Dance of Death, A Carcass and Weeping & Wandering. How about this from The Remorse of the Dead:

And when the stone upon thy trembling breast,

And on thy straight sweet body's supple grace,

Crushes thy will and keeps thy heart at rest,

And holds those feet from their adventurous race;

Then the deep grave, who shares my reverie,

(For the deep grave is aye the poet's friend)

During long nights when sleep is far from thee,

Shall whisper: "Ah, thou didst not comprehend 

The dead wept thus, thou woman frail and weak"

And like the remorse the worm shall gnaw thy cheek.

Cheery stuff. But it's not all mortality and death. There are verses on beauty, seasons and wine as well. 

One afternoon on the return bus journey, my six-year-old son was reading the children's book, Thorfinn the Nicest Viking and the Awful Invasion. He then became interested in my book. He read the first half of The Dance of Death, returned it to me and then proceeded to look out the window. He told me that according to his book, my Viking name according to the Viking Name Generator is Cnut Hound Impaler. Baudelaire's would be Big Toe Skewerer. I think he would have liked that.