On Baudelaire Symbolist Poems Reflect Awareness

Symbolism is a school of art in western literature which has profound influence in the past century. It has ended the history of the development of western classical literature, and also opened a precedent for the development of modern literature. As a poetic genre, symbolism was originated from France in the mid19th century. As a pioneer of the French Symbolism, Baudelaire promoted greatly the development of poetry. He succeeded the tradition of romanticism and opened the door to modernism. By bringing together the different sides of in a variety of genres in the European end of the century emotions, he independently and calmly formed a unique trend through a process of introspection, consisting of doubt, denial, and refining. Baudelaire opened up the aesthetic range of poetry, and brought up a very inspiring and groundbreaking poetry philosophy, making symbolism the nutritious source of all modern literary genres, and he later known as the earliest founder of modernism.This paper firstly introduces the cultural background of the nineteenth-century French and European literary and artistic world, and then starts to sort out the development of symbolism and illustrates the creative intention of Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs Du Mai. Secondly, from the process of Baudelaire’s acceptance inheritance and innovation of Western culture, and the perspective of his reflection and rebellion on romanticism, aestheticism and decadence school, a sense of introspection is mainly focused. The conclusion is that:the French Symbolism’s attitude towards Western culture doesn’t only lie in the rebellious stage, but also come to stage with a deep stigma of traditional western culture. And Baudelaire did not generally inclusive use and inherit traditions, but on the basis of reflection and introspection, inheriting Romanticism and other schools of philosophy, and absorbing the essence of aestheticism and other genres. The new era brought out a new charm, and also created his own style of poetry. Finally, from the point of view of introspection, the aesthetics foundation of Baudelaire’s poetry is analyzed in terms of social history, and philosophy. Therefore during the comparison of Baudelaire and his contemporaries poets, in the crossroads of the trend of literature, Baudelaire’s distinctive character can be viewed and presented.