This book is a study of how Baudelaire shapes the raw material of the French language within the formal framework of French versification. Graham Chesters analyses the sounds, metrical units, rhymes, syntax and overall structure to show the tension between irony and harmony inherent in this poet's work.

This book is a study of how Baudelaire shapes the raw material of the French language within the formal framework of French versification. Graham Chesters analyses the sounds, metrical units, rhymes, syntax and overall structure of a range of texts to show the tension between irony and harmony inherent in the craft of the poet. This is particularly noticeable in Baudelaire's urban poetry, in which traditional expectations of poetic form clash with the pulsating freshness, difference and energy of modern Paris. As well as offering close stylistic analysis, the book explores Baudelaire's theoretical concerns.