La servante au grand cœur… (poème C des ''Fleurs du Mal'')

Abstract

Resume A linguistic and genetic study of La servante au grand cœur… (in Les Fleurs du Mal) shows that Baudelaire endeavoured to attribute a complex network of emotive and/or hallucinatory mental states to the poetic self by resorting to a rich inventory of formal and expressive devices: syntax and its interface with meter; the deontic and evidential readings of the modal verb devoir; pragmatic connectives (pourtant, certes); evaluative items (the verb trouver, the adverb bien, the preposition a introducing an infinitival clause); the intertextual dimension of the poetic lexicon; contrasts between elevated and everyday language. The analysis provided paves the way to an integrated interpretation of the poem and definitely refutes Valery’s and Benjamin’s comments on its first two verses.