Poetry Response 01

                                       

Be Drunk by Charles Baudelaire

You have to be always drunk. That's all there is to it--it's the 
only way. So as not to feel the horrible burden of time that breaks 
your back and bends you to the earth, you have to be continually 
drunk.


But on what? Wine, poetry or virtue, as you wish. But be 
drunk.


And if sometimes, on the steps of a palace or the green grass of 
a ditch, in the mournful solitude of your room, you wake again, 
drunkenness already diminishing or gone, ask the wind, the wave, 
the star, the bird, the clock, everything that is flying, everything 
that is groaning, everything that is rolling, everything that is 
singing, everything that is speaking. . .ask what time it is and 
wind, wave, star, bird, clock will answer you: "It is time to be 
drunk! So as not to be the martyred slaves of time, be drunk, be
continually drunk! On wine, on poetry or on virtue as you wish."


While the poem does include alcohol in the grouping of various things to get off of, it is not at all trying to hint at or incite alcoholism. At least I hope it isn’t. Besides that thought I love the feel of the poem and the lack of the usual structure you see in most poems seen here. There’s no real rhyming but somehow the words still have a nice sort of flow to them. As for the feel I get from the poem it’s a very positive one. Baudelaire’s Be Drunk is a poem that tells us that we should seek out the things in life which we can use to overcome the realizations or parts of reality that we eventually face that aren’t to our fancy. Drink, write or read poetry, do something that excites you and fills you with an abundance of good emotions even if you’re down in the dumps. This is the sort of interpretation I basically took away from the poem.