Week 4: Reading Response to Baudelaire’s “To the Reader”,
Reading Response on Romanticism and Baudelaire’s “To the Reader” (60 points)
Due: Thursday, February 1, 11:59 pm.
Length: About 350 words (one long paragraph in double-space)
Writing instructions
Please put quotation marks (not italics) around the poem title, “To the Reader” (this is an MLA style)
Do not use expressions, such as “I think,” “I feel like,” or “we see” in analytical reading responses.
Please use an MLA in-text citation when you cite a quote. Put the line number in parentheses –(e.g.) The poet-speaker says “Our sins are stubborn” (line 5).
Note: Do not summarize the poem stanza by stanza. Please answer the questions in the prompt of the reading response.
Reading Response to Baudelaire’s Poem, “To the Reader” (1857)
Why are the poet and the reader drawn to two conflicting desires (e.g. “clandestine joys”)? What does Baudelaire try to convey through the image of “the way a beggar nourishes his lice” (line 4)? Why does the poet call Satan a “cunning alchemist”? Why does he call Boredom a “monster”? Does the poet view Boredom as a devilish destructive emotion or does he view Boredom as a negative emotion that stirs him to do something (e.g. a force that stimulates the inspiration for his creative imagination)? What does Baudelaire try to convey by saying we [the poet and the reader] “cheerfully” “crawl back to the mire” (line 7)? Does Baudelaire reject the negative side (e.g. evil thoughts such as immoral thoughts and behaviors) of human emotions? Why does the poet call the reader his “twin”? Is the poet tolerant of the reader’s conflicting inner desires? If so, why? How does the Romantic poet Baudelaire depict opposites/ opposed pairs (such as pleasure and guilt, good and evil) in the poem? Please make sure that your analysis of the poem is logically connected and supported by textual evidence (at least two direct quotes).Please make sure that your interpretation of the poem is well supported by textual evidence (at least 2 direct quotes – one or two lines only) and your ideas are connected and consistently developed throughout the paragraph.
