WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - The Poetry Fix: The Abyss

Episode Date: October 30, 2025

Today, Erika Kyba reads "The Abyss," by Baudelaire, and attempts to explore the poet's terror of the infinite.

to the Poetry Fix on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. I'm your host, Erica Kaiba, bringing you your weekly fix of poetry from across time. Today we're reading Baudelaire's The Abyss. This is a poem that can feel like the rant of a troubled, overthinking poet, but if that's all we take it as, there's a lot that we miss. Baudelaire is driven to terror by what he perceives as the abyss of the infinite, opening up on every side around him. He begins by invoking the name of Pascal, and though Pascal is only mentioned once, he's basically, basically the frame that contains the entire poem. Now, you might have heard of Pascal's Wager, but there's another famous philosophical concept

he came up with. It's called Pascal's Abyss. Very much in the tradition of St. Augustine, Pascal writes that man seeks to fill an infinite abyss with inadequate things, but only God can fill this abyss because he himself is infinite. It's a variation of our hearts are restless until they rest in you. Humans are infinitely desirous and infinitely unsatisfied, because there is a chasm in us that can only be filled by our Creator.

and because our creator is infinite, so is the chasm. Bottler's life betrays the same restlessness observed by Augustine and Pascal, and it seems like no coincidence that he chose to fixate on this philosophical concept. He wasn't merely an isolated, troubled young man with a penchant for dark thoughts. He was a profligate party boy, running up his debts by spending on prostitutes, drink, opium, and finery. He dabbled in scholarly work and eventually gave himself over to the craft of poetry, but never seemed to muster up the dedication to be continually industrious.

Nothing seemed to satisfy him continuously, not his studies, not the women he was involved with, and not even his poetry, really. Here is someone who tried just about everything the world had to offer and came up short. He doesn't follow Pascal's logic to the end, but he certainly seems to identify with the infinite abyss. And that's why he writes that, Tutet Abim, everything is abyss, even fascinatingly, word, itself. So none of his actions or desires can fill the void within him. that seems straightforward enough. But that fixation on word, which he enjams and capitalizes, is key. He's not just saying that his poetry, his own wordcraft, is ultimately unfulfilling.

He's making a reference to Christ as the Word of God. It's no accident that he's capitalized Word. He's drawing our attention to an illusion that changes the entire poem's trajectory. Baudelaire is terrified of the infinite. He's not just despairing over a void that he cannot fill. He's afraid of the one who can fill it. To him, the word himself is abyss. He's afraid because there's nowhere he can turn without seeing the infinite.

So where Baudelaire has ended up is not exactly where Pascal would have him go. But is it possible that Baudelaire has put his finger on something that's theologically useful? Is his fear appropriate in any measure as a response to the infinite? Can his despair tell us something about our condition without God? Or is this merely the raving of a very troubled man? Let's consider that as we dive in, the abyss. by William Agler. Pascal had his abyss that moved along with him.

Alas, all is abysmal. Action, desire, dream, word. And over my hair, which stands on end, I feel the wind of fear pass frequently. Above, below. On every side, the depth, the strand, the silence. Space, hideous, and fascinating. On the background of my night's God with clever hands

sketch is an unending nightmare of many forms. I'm afraid of sleep, as one is of a great hole full of obscure horrors, leading one knows not where. I see only infinite through every window, and my spirit, haunted by vertigo, is jealous of the insensibility of nothingness. Ah, never to go out from numbers and beings. You've been listening to The Poetry Fix with Erica Kaiba. If you enjoyed this episode, consider following the Poetry Fix on Spotify, YouTube, or Apple Podcast. And if you have any poems you want to see in a future episode, email your suggestions to the poetry fix at gmail.com. Join me next week and we'll be reading Emily Dickinson's Sikh Transit Gloria Mundi.