« J’ai achevé un monument plus durable que l’airain » : le temple des images de Charles Baudelaire

Abstract

In his handwritten notes, Benveniste advocates a specific epistemological approach to Baudelaire’s poetry, consisting in the analysis of his poetic universe through the “revealing choice” of words and the “articulation” of certain images. This is also how Mallarmé celebrates Baudelaire's innovative language and his shocking imagination, in the tombeau that he dedicates to the author of the Flowers of Evil. Each stanza revolves around a central motif, coded through metaphors: the “temple”, the “museau”, the “mèche”, the “poison” and finally the “Ombre” while the syntax dissolves stasis and volatilizes any predetermined link. This poem is an essential illustration of the artist’s legacy and of his poetic revolution: Mallarmé, in fact, stresses the innovative character of Baudelaire’s work by renewing in his homage, with such nouns as “bouche d’égout” or “bave”, the subversion of the uttered word.

Keywords

• Baudelaire (Charles)
• image
• perfume
• Mallarmé (Stéphane)
• tombeau