“All which is beautiful and noble is the result of reason and calculation.”
~Charles Baudelaire
“Hymn to Beauty” comes from Charles Baudelaire’s book Les Fleurs du Mal (which translates into English as Flowers of Suffering). First published in 1857, it has become one of the most widely read and influential collections of poetry ever to come out of France. Like Edgar Allan Poe, whose works Baudelaire was instrumental in introducing to French audiences through extensive translations and critical works, Baudelaire viewed the universe with acute sensuality that leaned toward a fascination with the supernatural and the macabre. At the same time, his own aesthetic theories led him to the conclusion that beauty, mysterious and unknowable as it was, was the artist’s main concern.
Interestingly, Baudelaire’s book Les Fleurs du Mal was subject to government censorship when it was published. Both Baudelaire and his publisher were forced to pay hefty fines for poems that were deemed indecent. In addition, six poems were removed from the second edition, published in 1861.
Spring, Lauritzen Gardens, Omaha.
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