Essay on Baudelaire's Her Hair for World lit II by John
Essay B #2 Her Hair
Charles Baudelaire is best known for his vivid poetic imagery. His poetry in Flowers of Evil is sometimes gruesome and grotesque, but occasionally attractive and always effectual. In the poem Her Hair, Baudelaire paints us a very romantic and sensual picture with words. He uses words that speak to the senses of smell, sight, hearing, touch, and taste, to help us live his wondrous experience. Baudelaire had a lover for many years who was a black woman, and we can feel his passion for her in this work.
O fleece, that down the neck waves to the nape!
O curls! O perfume nonchalant and rare!
O ecstacy! To fill this alcove shape
With memories that in these tresses sleep,
I would shake them like pennons in the air! (1-5)
The first lines of the poem begin by comparing his partner’s hair with fleece and down. He describes it as curly, precious and perfumed. The reader can see that he is in an excited state of affection. Baudelaire also gives his first reference to the sea by comparing her hair to waves. He shows his passion to know everything about this woman, and his desire to be a long-term companion to her by writing about the memories asleep beneath her hair. He ends the first section of the poem comparing his lover’s hair to pennons waving. A pennon is a personal pennant belonging to a knight, used for identification. Baudelaire declares his passion and eternal love right from the start.
Laguorous Asia, burning Africa,
And a far world, defunct almost absent,
Within your aromatic forest stay!
As other souls on music drift away,
Mine, o my love! Still floats upon your scent. (6-10)
The second section describes the areas of her genealogy. She reminds him of her ancestral home in Asia and Africa. Even though he is physically far from those places, she transports him there by her presence and the effect she has on his senses. Lines 8 to 10 describe how Baudelaire feels about his lover as others are moved by music. The reference to floating continues the maritime theme.
I shall go there where, full of sap, both tree
And man swoon in the heat of southern climes;
Strong tresses, be the swell that carries me!
I dream upon your sea of ebony
Of dazzling sails, of oarsmen, masts and flames: (11-15)
The third section suggests exploration. He uses an allegory for passionate love as a journey to a place of excessive heat, which causes some men to become weak. Her hair is transporting him, as the waves in the ocean carry ships. In line 14, he compares her dark skinned body to a dark ocean that supports his dreams. There is such an eroticism of the ocean and waves being a palpable force driving him, perhaps in the act of lovemaking.
A sun-drenched and reverberating port
Where I imbibe color and sound and scent;
Where vessels, gliding through the gold and moire,
Open their vast arms as they leave the shore
To clasp the pure and shimmering firmament. (16-20)
The next section of the poem tells of arriving at a destination. The place he has been transported to is warm and full of life. All of his senses are stirred. He drinks color, sound and scent. In the last two verses of this section, the imagery is one of coming home. “To clasp the pure and shimmering firmament” is to arrive home, to find your passion, fully realize your being in another, and to fall in love.
I’ll plunge my head, enamored of its pleasure,
In this black ocean where the other hides;
My subtle spirit then will know a measure
Of fertile idleness and fragrant leisure,
Lulled by the infinite rhythm of its tides! (21-25)
In the next section, Baudelaire speaks of his intentions after he has found his destiny. He speaks of his pleasure and of diving into a black ocean. Once again, he references his black lover and the sea. He mentions an “other”; this also speaks to the theme of discovery. He is one with his love and whole. The “fertile idleness” is finding profit in doing nothing, except being with his companion. The reference to being “Lulled by the infinite rhythm of its tides” brings to mind a spiritual blending of nature and human being.
Pavilion, of blue-shadowed tresses spun,
You give me back the azure from afar;
And where the twisted locks are fringed with down
Lurk mingled odors I grow drunk upon
Of oil of coconut, of musk and tar. (26-30)
This section of the poem speaks about a structure. He has found a home in love and ecstasy, brought about by the tactile sense of his lover’s hair. She transports him on a voyage of exploration and he finds a mystic connection in their physical and emotional contact. The smells “Of oil of coconut, of musk and tar”, are the same one would find on a ship. Ships would export coconut oil and smell like the tar used to seal their timbers. The musk could also be on the ship being sent to a perfumery. Oil of coconut could be on the woman’s skin, the musk could be the fragrance of their mingled bodies, and the tar another example of her skin color. He is so enraptured with this woman that she pervades all of his senses.
A long time! always! my hand in your hair
Will sow the stars of sapphire, pearl, ruby,
That you be never deaf to my desire,
My oasis and gourd whence I aspire
To drink deep of the wine of memory! (31-35)
The last section repeats themes from the first lines. The energizing effects of touching the hair of the woman he loves amaze him. The time he is with this woman is very precious to him, like the jewels mentioned in the line 32 of this section. The lines 34 and 35 are extremely powerful. As if in prayer, he bears witness to his passion and all consuming love for her. He compares her to an oasis and a gourd, a place of refuge and life in the desert, and a container for life giving liquid. He wants to “drink deep of the wine of memory”, never to forget the transcendence of his love or the oneness of being so intimately close to his lover. The last line also speaks to the memories they will share in their future together.
Charles Baudelaire paints us a picture with his words. He uses highly descriptive passages, alluding to ocean travel, exploration, and unity. He combines these themes together with the senses and his unfathomable feelings about his ladylove. Finished with his masterwork, the artist simply displays it. The reader is left to interpret the meaning of the work for him or her self.