Echos de la mère dans la perception du temps chez Baudelaire

In many of his writings, especially his letters to his mother, Baudelaire shows that he perceives time in its flight all the more acutely that it is not well used. This gives the mother's image a severity that is the mirror of the poet's sense of guilt. Time and the difficulty of work become knotted into an obsession to be broken by suicide, dreaming, drugs, or explosive activity. But some privileged moments, like sunsets, dissolve the obsession: the poet then experiences a feeling of appeasement reminiscent of the lost loving unity with the mother. Time's urgency, however, always restores itself. (HF)