Charles Pierre Baudelaire (April 9, 1821 – August 31, 1867) was an influential nineteenth century French poet, critic, and acclaimed translator. Baudelaire was born in Paris. His father, a senior civil servant and amateur artist, died early in Baudelaire's life in 1827. In the following year, his mother married a lieutenant colonel Jacques Aupick, who later became a French ambassador to various courts. Baudelaire was educated in Lyon and at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand in Paris. Upon gaining his degree in 1839, he decided to embark upon a literary career, and for the next two years led an irregular life. He may have contracted syphilis during this period. In the hope of reforming him, his guardians sent him on a voyage to India in 1841, but he never arrived. When he returned to Paris, after less than a year's absence, he received a small inheritance, but he spent it within a few years. His family obtained a decree to place his property in trust. During this time he met Jeanne Duval, who was to become his longest romantic association. His art reviews of 1845 and 1846 attracted immediate attention for their boldness; many of his critical opinions were novel in their time, but have since been generally accepted. He took part in the Revolutions of 1848, and for some years was interested in republican politics, but his political convictions spanned the anarchism of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, the history of the Raison d'Ëtat of Giuseppe Ferrari, and ultramontane critique of liberalism of Joseph de Maistre.
the albatross
Often to pass the time on board, the crew
will catch an albatross, one of those big birds
...[read poem]
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will catch an albatross, one of those big birds
...
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