Why did Charles Baudelaire reject the idea that Les Fleurs du mal was a simple album of poems?

Charles Baudelaire rejected the notion that his masterpiece, Les Fleurs du mal, was a simple album of poems because he viewed the collection as a cohesive work with a distinct beginning and end.1

He insisted that the poems were organized within a "singular framework," meaning that the full meaning of any individual poem could only be understood when read in relation to the others. By arranging the 126 poems into six thematic sections—"Spleen et idéal," "Tableaux parisiens," "Le Vin," "Fleurs du mal," "Révolte," and "La Mort"—Baudelaire constructed an intentional narrative. This structure transforms the collection into a journey through self and society, depicting an existential odyssey in search of an impossible satisfaction that perpetually eludes the traveler. Through this deliberate architecture, the work explores the general human predicament, moving from the internal struggles of the artist to the eventual realization that the quest for fulfillment continues even beyond death.12