SOURCE: Bullock, Marcus. “Benjamin, Baudelaire, Rossetti and the Discovery of Error.” Modern Language Quarterly 53, no. 2 (June 1992): 201-25.

In the following essay, Bullock applies Walter Benjamin's reading of Charles Baudelaire to Rossetti, and delineates the “differences of style and stature” between the two poets.

Walter Benjamin wrote much that examined the situation of nineteenth-century culture under conditions of industrial capitalism and mercantile imperialism. In principle one should be able to carry his insights over to objects of study with which he does not deal individually. Yet generalizations risk overlooking the specificity of his analyses. Tempting as it is to broaden his reading of Baudelaire to other writers of the period, we can easily mistake the nature of his project if we assume too ready a transference. A clear, cool, precise inquiry does better justice to his messianic spirit of truth.

My discussion focuses on a revealing case. In an...