"Drunk” by Charles Baudelaire Be always drunken. Nothing else matters: that is the only question. If you would not feel the horrible burden of The weighing on your shoulders and crushing you to the earth, be drunken continually. Drunken with what? With wine, with poetry, or with virtue, as you will. But be drunken. And if sometimes, on the stair of a palace, or on the green side of a ditch, or in the dreary solitude of your own room, you should awaken and the drunkenness be half or wholly slipped away from you, ask of the wind, or of the wave, or of the star, or of the bird, or of the dick, or of the clock, or whatever flies, or sighs, or rocks, or sings, or speaks, ask what hour it is; and the wind, wave, star, bird, clock, will answer you: “It is the hour to be drunken! Be drunken, if you would not be martyred slaves of Time; be drunken continually! With wine, with poetry, or with virtue, as you will.” Taken from Baudelaire: His Prose and Poetry edited by T R Smith Topic: Write an essay in which you explain how Baudelaire defines “drunkenness” in his prose poem. You should consider how his understanding of “drunkenness” deviates from the word’s usual meaning and whether he views “drunkenness” as a positive or negative experience. Also, in your analysis of the poem, you should address whether you believe Baudelaire’s message is healthy or problematic; for instance, you might consider how Baudelaire’s understanding of drunkenness is liberating, or you might instead consider how potentially cultivates a delusional or escapist mindset. (Underline the thesis of your essay If you submit an essay in which the thesis is not underlined, five points will be subtracted from the grade you receive for the essay.) Here is a YouTube reading of the poem (Because the poem is translated from French, some of the words may be different from the version above.): (
