Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Charles Baudelaire's "Meditation" is an intimate soliloquy that takes the form of an internal dialogue with Sorrow. Baudelaire treats Sorrow as a companion, perhaps the closest and most faithful one he has. The atmosphere is meditative and contemplative, as the poet addresses the personified form of his melancholy, urging it to find solace in the very environment that seems to intensify its presence: the twilight.

The poem commences with an invocation, "Be wise, my Sorrow; oh, more tranquil be!" signaling both a yearning for wisdom and a plea for emotional stability. Baudelaire grapples with the dual emotional impact of twilight, noting that while the setting sun "brings peace to some," it gives "despondency" to others. He implicates that the external world has different impacts on the individual depending on their internal state.

The next stanza discusses the life led by the "human multitudes," who are immersed in ephemeral pleasures, flagellated by what he calls "the torturer's lash of Pleasure, never released." There is a distinct critique of societal norms and behaviors here. Baudelaire contrasts the fleeting and hollow joy of the crowd with his more profound, if more painful, relationship with Sorrow. He seems to argue that there's a nobility or authenticity in his companionship with sorrow, which he values over the fleeting joys that come with societal pleasures.

Interestingly, Baudelaire takes Sorrow by the hand, as if he were escorting a dear friend or lover away from the crowd, to a place where both can be true to their nature. He identifies more with the evening, an in-between time that reflects his own ambiguous, transitional emotional state.

The next few lines take a deeper, almost surrealistic dive into abstract concepts-years are "in outworn robes," "Smiling Regret" looks "from the waters' deeps," and the "dying light" sleeps. These expressions serve to show that emotional states can transcend time and space, becoming almost physical entities that one can interact with. The years that have passed are not gone; they linger, 'leaning' with a presence that is both haunting and beautiful.

The poem then concludes with the appearance of "soft step the night," a phrase that evokes an almost tactile sense of darkness approaching, gentle yet inevitable. The night isn't just a setting; it's an active participant, inching closer, enveloping the world-and the poet's sorrow-in its inky veil.

"Meditation" as a whole can be seen as an exploration of emotional complexity, one that doesn't aim to resolve the contradictions but rather to sit with them, to understand them, and perhaps, find a form of wisdom in that understanding. The poem invites us to ponder the multifaceted nature of emotions, how they are neither wholly good nor bad but are instead deeply interwoven into the fabric of human experience. In Baudelaire's universe, even sorrow has its wisdom, its particular form of quiet beauty, and its unique place in the diorama of human emotions.

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