Abstract
This article offers a reading of the poem « The Cake » opposite the Discourse on the origin of inequality among men with which Baudelaire discusses. He will also present a very significant passage from Emile (who has never yet caught the attention of critics in the interpretation of this poem) in which Rousseau portrays the same situation as Baudelaire imagines in « The Cake ». To what extent he felt the importance of Rousseau's theses and was dependent on them, is what should prevent « The Cake » from seeing only a superficial and ideological criticism of the author of the Reveries of the Solitary Walker. Baudelaire, and the existence of this great poem is enough to attest, reflects with Rousseau on the human condition, it is in his wake that he wonders about the need and the possibilities, at the present time, of a word of poetry. So that listening to his objections as much as his approval to the father of romanticism will allow him to appreciate his immense influence in the writing of Spleen.
Keywords
Baudelaire; Rousseau; The Spleen of Paris; The Cake