He refers to his own corpse as "free and happy," which is not a way most people would feel contemplating their dead body or a body of their loved one. Another interesting element of this is Baudelaire's description of the worms as "minus ear or eye. In these line Baudelaire displays two of his greatest poetic talents: personification and simile.
He personifies Hate as a creature that will never be satiated. It is in a tavern and thus has access to everything it desires but it does not know how to stop itself from being destroyed by the very thing it covets.
Abruptly beginning the last line with the word "Ever" is a sharp way to impress upon the reader just how futile it is for Hate to escape its own self-made trap. The simile is also well-chosen, with Baudelaire evoking the Hydra from the Herculean labors to suggest just how impossible it is for the drunkard to escape the thirst, and, by extension, the poet to escape from the Hate that fills him.
As Baudelaire moves further down his path of despair and disillusionment, his images begin to darken as well. Here we imagine a lonely Sphinx in the desert, glowing for no one and whose pride seems irrelevant and pathetic. The image also makes reference to the Statue of Memnon in Egypt, which was supposed to sing when hit by the rays of the rising sun. Instead, this sphinx is hit by the rays of the setting sun.
This is a metaphor for Baudelaire himself: adrift and isolated, singing his verses for no one as time marches inexorably onward. In "Correspondences," one of the first poems in Flowers of Evil, Baudelaire marvels at the forest filled with its symbols, and gives the reader peaceful images of grass and oboes and pleasing scents.
Here, though, near the end of the work, Baudelaire is scared by the forests. He finds them as imposing, as awesome and foreboding, and as foreign as a cathedral. This comparison works because readers think of the high vaulted ceiling of the cathedral and of the forest trees, as well as both places being dark, hushed, and perhaps unwelcoming.
As a sinner, Baudelaire would no doubt feel unwelcome in a holy place like a cathedral, and he also now feels ill-equipped to be the confidante to whom Nature reveals her secrets. These lines reveal Baudelaire's despair. He imagines "A Being, a Form, an Idea" falling into the darkness of the river Styx, never to be seen again.
This is possibly how he sees his own verses being treated—as he ages and gives himself over to vice, his inspirations and art may vanish into the ether and not just the ether but a dark, sludgy river of death.
His evocation of the sky as not having an eye is also significant, as eyes for Baudelaire were windows, mirrors, veritable portals into the beyond and transcendence. Baudelaire uses colors frequently in this poem to emphasize his emotions. His heart is red, the light in the woman's eyes is green, summer in its ferocious whiteness has given way to autumn's mellow gold.
Those colors are more than just descriptive, however. The red of the heart is mitigated by the fact that it is frozen like a piece of meat. The Flowers of Evil. To One Who Is Too Cheerful Your head, your air, your every way Are scenic as the countryside; The smile plays in your lips and eyes Like fresh winds on a cloudless day. The gloomy drudge, brushed by your charms, Is dazzled by the vibrancy That flashes forth so brilliantly Out of your shoulders and your arms.
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Antonyms for cheerful. Learn More About cheerful. Share cheerful Post more words for cheerful to Facebook Share more words for cheerful on Twitter. Time Traveler for cheerful The first known use of cheerful was in the 15th century See more words from the same century. Style: MLA.
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