1. charles
Poems of Charles Baudelaire/A Former Life

Long since, I lived beneath vast porticoes,

By many ocean-sunsets tinged and fired,

Where mighty pillars, in majestic rows,

Seemed like basaltic caves when day expired.

 

...

Poet:
Poems of Charles Baudelaire/The Sky

Where'er he be, on water or land,
Under pale suns or climes that flames enfold;

One of Christ's own, or of Cythera's band,...

Poet:
Poems of Charles Baudelaire/A Landscape

Then I will dream of blue horizons deep;

Of gardens where the marble fountains weep;

Of kisses, and of ever-singing birds—

A sinless Idyll built of innocent words.


And Trouble, knocking at my window-pane

And...

Poet:
Poems of Charles Baudelaire/A Madrigal of Sorrow

I know your heart, which overflows
With outworn loves long cast aside,

Still like a furnace flames and glows,

And you within your breast enclose
...

Poet:
Poems of Charles Baudelaire/An Allegory

Here is a woman, richly clad and fair,

Who in her wine dips her long, heavy hair;

Love's claws, and that sharp poison which is sin,

Are dulled against the granite of her skin.

...

Poet:
Poems of Charles Baudelaire/Beauty

I am as lovely as a dream in stone,

And this my heart where each finds death in turn,

Inspires the poet with a love as lone

As clay eternal and as taciturn.


Swan-white of heart,...

Poet:
Poems of Charles Baudelaire/Contemplation

Thou, O my Grief, be wise and tranquil still,

The eve is thine which even now drops down,

To carry peace or care to human will,

And in a misty veil enfolds the town.


While...

Poet:
Poems of Charles Baudelaire/La Beatrice

Should dream that eagles and insects, streams and woods,

Stand still to hear him chaunt his dolorous moods?

Even unto us, who made these ancient things,

The fool his public lamentation sings."


With pride as lofty as the...

Poet:
Poems of Charles Baudelaire/Robed in a Silken Robe

Robed in a silken robe that shines and shakes,
She seems to dance whene'er she treads the sod,

Like the long serpent that a...

Poet:
Poems of Charles Baudelaire/Spleen

I'm like some king in whose corrupted veins

Flows agèd blood; who rules a land of rains;

Who, young in years, is old in all distress;

Who flees good counsel to find weariness

Among his...

Poet: