The Beauty of Consolation

This chapter argues that, for Cocteau, a degree of consolation comes with recognising that there is something greater than the spheres in which we ourselves operate. When one looks back on one’s own life at the memories one has shared with others, one finds consolation in the fact there are things worth recollecting that seem to last beyond the time of their first happening. Such wisdom reminds us that there is value beyond the self while emphasising the fact that experiencing life in the first place has made being alive worthwhile. The poet may accept the certainty of their own death, but not the certainty of the path they took through their life or the legacy they have after their death. But, by facing up to death, Cocteau eschewed the concerns that beset him in everyday life to face those timeless truths which many a great poet has pondered over and treated as an avenue to some purposeful reconciliation with the world around them and the past from which they came into existence.