During the Romanticism movement of the 19th century, literature generally represented women as considerably inferior to men. Charles Baudelaire is a poet and symbolist born in France in 1821 and is considered one of the best lyric poets. He is best known for writing a volume of poems titled The Flowers of Evil published in 1857 and also pioneered the translation of Edgar Allen Poe's work into French. During his lifetime, the volume received no critical praise due to its vulgar and perverse images and six poems were subsequently banned for outraging public decency. One of these six poems, entitled A Carcass, depicts the speaker (presumably a man) and his lover as they discover a human and female corpse. “Remember, my love, the object that we saw This beautiful June morning: At the bend of a path, a carcass lying on a bed strewn with pebbles and stones; 1 The imagery of this poem depicts both that of a Petrarchan love poem and a decomposing corpse, further juxtaposed with a lengthy disgusting description that appears to make it sexual. The poem itself is lyrical, perhaps to reflect the unequal position women acquired in society in the early 19th century. In this essay I will explore the images painted in The Carcass and how they may hide various connections to the reader's views of women as sexual objects and how it also reveals the difficulties faced by women in the 19th century. I will also compare the tone of the poem to that of the ideals of love poetry or Petrarch's sonnets. Charles Baudelaire's choice of language in La Carcasse evokes strong imagery and his use of simple but powerful verbs reinforces the juxtaposition. “The flies buzzed and buzzed over these filthy bowels” and “its stinking and purulent images... middle of paper... disturbing images. This separation in style may perhaps reflect how women's rights have evolved over the years. In conclusion, Baudelaire's Carcass has strong imagery and the language is more direct to make its point. That doesn't mean it's any less symbolic. Each line is created to contain as much symbolic meaning as possible in order to evoke emotions as well as images. This imagery is disturbing and disgusting in order to juxtapose her view of 13th century women in society. Petrarcha's poems are less shocking in their meaning and do not portray women negatively. It can therefore be said that the perception and treatment of women in society from the 13th to the 19th centuries deteriorated somewhat, which is vaguely evident in the poetry I analyzed. Only now, in our time, can we discuss these once-ignored views and make progress on women's rights..