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Assuming that the cultural matrix of Baudelaire’s poem is built on a series of “passages” (material, ritual, symbolic, spatio-temporal), this ethnocritical reading of Baudelaire’s poem “À une passante” (To a Passer-By) interprets the woman’s mourning as a ritual that precisely transforms the woman passing-by into a “passer-by.” This article also examines the symbolic equivalence between “her statuesque leg” and the lameness of the woman, which is a sign of a mobility impairment and an obstacle to going through the rite of passage.