June 1, 1857: Les Fleurs du mal is published.
Charles Baudelaire’s controversial book of poetry was divided into six sections, those being “Spleen and Ideal”, “Parisian Scenes”, “Wine”, the eponymous “Flowers of Evil”, “Revolt”, and “Death”. The first edition of Les Fleurs du mal sold out within a year of its publication, made possible largely by the scandal that arose because of Baudelaire’s “obscene” works, which according to judges incited in his readers “the excitement of the senses by a crude realism offensive to public decency”. The second edition, released in 1861, was published missing six poems (all of which remained banned until 1949).
The six censored poems were Lesbos, Women Doomed (In the pale glimmer…), Lethe, To One Who is Too Gay, The Jewels, and The Vampire’s Metamorphoses.
Some choice lines…
Lesbos, of sultry twilights and pure, infertile joy,
Where deep-eyed maidens, thoughtlessly disrobing, see
Their beauty, and are entranced before their mirrors, and toy
Fondly with the soft fruits of their nubility;
Lesbos, of sultry twilights and pure, infertile joy! (“Lesbos”)The strong beauty kneeling before the frail beauty,
Superb, she savored voluptuously
The wine of her triumph and stretched out toward the girl
As if to reap her reward of sweet thankfulness. (“Women Doomed”)To punish your bombastic flesh,
To bruise your breast immune to pain,
To farrow down your flank a lane
Of gaping crimson, deep and fresh. (“To One Who is Too Gay”)When she had sucked my marrow dry, I turned,
Languid, to give her back the kiss she earned,
Only to view, I fond and amorous,
A viscid wineskin, nidorous with pus… (“The Vampire’s Metamorphoses”)
Viktor Vasnetsov’s illustrations for Alexander Pushkin’s “The Song of the Wise Oleg”:
Oleg, the wise Prince, roused to arm,
Cried: “Vengeance on the ruthless horde
Of raiding Chosars! Field and farm
My men shall put to fire and sword!
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner - by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (engravings by Gustave Doré).
’God save thee, ancient Mariner!
From the fiends, that plague thee thus!—
Why look’st thou so?’—With my cross-bow
I shot the Albatross.
Andrea Gibson, “I Sing the Body Electric, Especially When My Power’s Out”
I (finally!) got to see one of my poetic idols, the incredible Andrea Gibson, perform last night. She opened with this, which is my favorite out of all her poems (along with “Jellyfish”, which she also performed, as I tried not to bawl my eyes out).
I was in the front row, so the original video quality is actually pretty good, but I had to diminish the file size to make it actually fit on tumblr, so that’s why it’s weirdly small. :/
