402
PARTISAN REVIEW
his own doctrine can be demonstrated by contrasting his interpre–
tation of what the poets have said with their actual meanings.
" .•. it is of
itself as poetry
that poetry achieves awareness in
him [Baudelaire]," says Maritain (his italics). Three passages are
the~
reproduced to show that Baudelaire had become conscious of
poetry as a spirit and that he has contributed to it a "theological
.quality." The quotations are excellent in themselves, but none
points to the profundities intended; on the contrary, each refers
to the profession of poetry, its new requirements, its position in
society, and its changed relations to the mysteries. "It would be a
prodigious thing," Baudelaire noted, "for a critic to turn poet, but
it is impossible for a poet not to have the makings of a critic."
This to Maritain is soul searching. Why? Because the critic is
conscious of poetry, and to Maritain consciousness means concen·
tration on essences. So Baudelaire's statement is automatically
translated into "it is impossible for a poet not to have the makings
of one who contemplates the self of poetry." But what was Baude–
laire actually saying?
As he did so frequently, Baudelaire here repeats an idea
held in common with Poe-a poet must understand the means
whereby the work is produced, that is, he must be awar.e of its·
law;
he therefore has "the makings of a critic." Even a critic
might turn poet if he possessed this knowledge of method. The
general tendency of the idea is that the poet can no longer wait for
inspiration to provide the poem; he must consciously,
experimen–
tally,*
set it into motion. This thought is first sketched in Poe's pref–
atory letter to his third book of poems, in which he attacks Words–
worth "for wearing away his youth in contemplation" and remarks
of Coleridge that "it is lamentable to think that such a mind should
be buried in metaphysics." Yet according to Maritain, both Poe
and Baudelaire are not only guilty of contemplation and meta·
physics but find the poem of no importance in comparison with the
state that produces it; they are not makers of poetry but perverse
seekers of salvation.
•In his
Marginalia
(XVI) Poe describes "experiments" to "induce" and "control"
a condition "compelling heaven into earth," with the "end in view" of "embodying"
it
in words.
