 These traits were not hindrances but consequences of their literary gifts.Verlaine's concept of the "poète maudit" in turn borrows from Baudelaire, who opened his collection "Les fleurs du mal" with the poem "Bénédiction", which describes a poet whose internal serenity remains undisturbed by the contempt of the people surrounding him.In this conception of genius and the role of the poet, Verlaine referred indirectly to the aesthetics of Arthur Schopenhauer, the philosopher of pessimism, who maintained that the purpose of art was to provide a temporary refuge from the world of strife of the will.