A collection of short prose poems, published after Baudelaire's death in 1869. Written as brief scenes, sketches and reflections, they follow a wandering observer through Paris, meeting beggars, crowds, lovers, widows and street performers. The tone shifts between tenderness, irony and gloom. Baudelaire wanted a prose that was musical yet free of rhyme, able to catch the shocks of modern urban life. The book helped establish the prose poem as a lasting form.