SOURCE: "The Interpretation of the Fleurs du Mal" in Baudelaire: A Study of His Poetry, New Directions Books, 1953, pp. 175-99.

In the following excerpt, Turnell argues that Baudelaire uses the imagery of urban crowds to escape the solitude of the poetic process.

I have already suggested that the 'Tableaux Parisiens' are not incidental glimpses of the city, but an attempt by the poet to re-establish contact with the world of common experience, to escape from the self. The attempt naturally fails, but it produces some of his finest and most original poetry.

The chapter contains eighteen poems. They record a 'circular tour' of the city lasting twenty-four hours, and three of them—Le Soleil, Le Crépuscule du soir, and Le Crépuscule du matin—mark the changes from morning to night, from night to dawn.

The first poem is a panorama of the city. The poet imagines...