Flowers of Evil, what I've been reading

Been "taking" a seminar with Cole Swenson on French poetry which I've decidedly stopped showing up for despite my interest in the subject (fucking with french prosody sucks when you don't know french). Been reading a lot of Charles Baudelaire--poems, biography, history of Paris, etc.

C.B. is one EFFED UP dude---I like him because he fucking loves beauty in misery---in fact, one of my favorite quotes by him is "Joy is Beauty's most vulgar adornment;" there are probably mad variations of it b/c of translations.

Been reading Parisian Scenes from The Flowers of Evil and he writes about old chicks in a poem called "The Little Old Women"---"Have you ever noticed how many caskets of old women are almost as small as a child's?" and in another poem, " "Only the strong are exhalted by the charms of horror."  

Point and case, CB is ill, read some of his misery-laden poems.