A Response to Gabby's Post: Baudelaire and Poe (my computer's being weird)

My computer for whatever reason won't let me comment back on Gabby's post about Baudelaire and Poe so I'll just make a post about it.

I agree with you, Gabby, that these two poets have much in common in their contents and styles of writing. This intrigued me to look into what other ways the two men were similar and in which ways they differed.

First and foremost: they even look alike (in my opinion)


(Baudelaire)                  (Poe)

Secondly: Their early childhood and inspiration for their work.
Edgar Allan Poe's father abandoned his family, while his mother died a year later all at a very young age.  These occurrences affected the way Poe's poems were crafted, due to the trauma from his mother. This is similar to Charles Baudelaire's childhood in that his father passed away while he was a boy, and his mother re-married, taking the focus off of solely him. Many biographers saw this trauma as a motive for many of Baudelaire's poems.... similar to Poe.

Lastly: (besides their similarity in their writing--cause gabby covered that) Their deaths:
The way these two poets died was weirdly similar: both essentially from mental exhaustion and drinking.
For Baudelaire,  his illnesses, his long-term use of laudanum, his life of stress, and his poverty had taken a toll and Baudelaire had aged noticeably. He smoked opium, and began to drink to excess, causing a massive stroke and paralysis. After more than a year of aphasia (inability to comprehend or formulate language because of damage to specific brain regions) he died.
For Poe, he was found delirious on the streets of Baltimore, "in great distress, and… in need of immediate assistance".Newspapers at the time reported Poe's death as "congestion of the brain" or "cerebral inflammation", another way to say from alcohol.

pretty crazy, right?