Editing Comte de Lautréamont (section)

==''Poésies''==

''Poésies'' (Poems, Poetry) is Ducasse's other, minor surviving work, and is divided into two parts.  Unlike ''Maldoror'', ''Poésies'' was published under Ducasse's given name.<ref>Knight, p. 10.</ref>

Both parts consist of a series of [[Maxim (philosophy)|maxims]] or [[aphorism]]s in prose, which express [[Aesthetics|aesthetic opinions]] concerning literature and poetry.  These statements frequently refer to authors of the [[western canon]] and compare their works and talents in rhetorical language; cited authors include the [[Greek tragedy|Greek tragedians]], [[Edgar Allan Poe]], and especially many French authors of Ducasse's period, including [[Charles Baudelaire]], [[Alexander Dumas]], and [[Victor Hugo]].  ''Poésies'' is therefore not a collection of ''poetry'' as its title suggests, but instead a work of [[literary criticism]], or [[poetics]].  ''Poésies'' also contrasts with the negative themes of ''Maldoror'' in the sense that it uses far more positive, uplifting, and [[Humanism|humanistic]] language.  Goodness and conventional moral values are regularly praised, even as authors familiar to Ducasse are sometimes denigrated:

{{Blockquote|text=Do not deny the immortality of the soul, God's wisdom, the value of life, the order of the universe, physical beauty, the love of the family, marriage, social institutions.  Ignore the following baneful pen-pushers: Sand, Balzac, Alexander Dumas, Musset, Du Terrail, Féval, Flaubert, Baudelaire, Leconte and the [[François Coppée|Grève des Forgerons]]!|title=''Poésies, Part I''<ref>Knight, p. 264.</ref>}}

Despite this, there are commonalities with ''Maldoror''.  Both works regularly describe animals by way of [[simile]] or colorful analogy, and although [[God]] is praised, other passages suggest on the contrary a humanism which places man above God: "Elohim is made in man's image."<ref>Knight, p. 278.</ref>