SOURCE: "Villaurrutia and Baudelaire," in Hispania, Vol. XLIII, No. 2, May, 1960, pp. 205-8.

In the following essay, Nugent draws parallels between the poetry of Villaurrutia and that of Charles Baudelaire, and points out areas of divergence as well.

The influence of various French authors on Villaurrutia has already been noted: Alí Chumacera in his introduction to the complete works of Villaurrutia¹ has pointed out (p. xxii) the importance of Proust, Cocteau, Supervielle, Giraudoux, the surrealists, the intellectual example of Gide, for the Mexican poet. Behind them all, however, stands the figure of Baudelaire, whose work forms the beginning of modern French poetic theory and attitudes. The present paper is an attempt to indicate some relationships between the author of the Fleurs du mal and the Mexican contemporáneo, not so much in the way of direct imitation but more in the way of comparisons which seem significant. These relationships...