"To be a useful person has always seemed to me something particularly horrible."
"One must be for ever drunken: that is the sole question of importance. If you would not feel the horrible burden of Time that bruises your shoulders and bends you to the earth, you must be drunken without cease. But how? With wine, with poetry, with virtue, with what you please. But be drunken. And if sometimes, on the steps of a palace, on the green grass by a moat, or in the dull loneliness of your chamber, you should waken up, your intoxication already lessened or gone, ask of the wind, of the wave, of the star, of the bird, of the timepiece; ask of all that flees, all that sighs, all that revolves, all that sings, all that speaks, ask of these the hour; and wind and wave and star and bird and timepiece will answer you: "It is the hour to be drunken! Lest you be the martyred slaves of Time, intoxicate yourselves, be drunken without cease! With wine, with poetry, with virtue, or with what you will."
"One morning we set sail, with brains on fire,
And hearts swelled up with rancorous emotion,
Balancing, to the rhythm of its lyre,
Our infinite upon the finite ocean."
(1821-67)
The Flowers of Evil - Oxford World's Classics - The Flowers of Evil, which T.S. Eliot called the greatest example of modern poetry in any language, shocked the literary world of nineteenth century France with its outspoken portrayal of lesbian love, its linking of sexuality and death, its unremitting irony, and its unflinching celebration of the seamy side of urban life. Including the French texts and comprehensive explanatory notes to the poems, this extraordinary body of love poems restores the six poems originally banned in 1857, revealing the richness and variety of the collection.
Includes the following Poems:
Abel And Cain
About A Bore Who Claimed His Acquaintance
The Abyss
Afternoon Song
The Albatross
Alchemy Of Grief
All In One
An Allegory
Amina Boschetti
The Balcony
Beacons
Beauty
Bertha's Eyes
The Blessing
The Blind
The Cask Of Hate
The Cat
The Cat
Cats
The Clock
Comes The Charming Evening
The Confession
Conversation
The Cracked Bell
The Dance Of Death
The Dancing Serpent
De Profundis Clamavi
The Death Of Artists
The Death Of Lovers
The Death Of The Poor
The Denial Of Saint Peter
Destruction
Don Juan In Hell
Dream Of A Curious Person
Duellum
Elevation
The End Of The Day
Epigraph For A Condemned Book
Evening Harmony
Ever So Far From Here
Exotic Perfume
Fantastic Engraving
The Flask
The Flowers Of Evil: A Carrion
The Flowers Of Evil: Correspondences
Flowers Of Evil: Parisian Dream
The Flowers Of Evil: Spleen
The Flowers Of Evil: To One Who Is Too Gay
A Former Life
The Fountain
The Fountain Of Blood
The Gaming Table
A Gay Chophouse
The Ghost
Giantess
The Gladly Dead
Gypsies On The Road
Heautontimoroumenos
Her Hair
A Hideous Jewess Lay With Me
Hymn
Hymn To Beauty
I Have Not Forgotten
I Love The Thought
The Ideal
If By Some Freak Of Fortune
Ill Luck
The Injured Moon
Invitation To The Voyage
The Irremediable
The Irremediable
The Irreparable
Jewels
Laments Of An Icarus
A Landscape
Lesbians
Lesbians
Lesbos
Lethe
The Lid
Litany To Satan
The Little Old Women
The Living Torch
Lola De Valence
Love And The Skull
The Love Of Lies
Lovers' Wine
A Madrigal Of Sorrow
Man And The Sea
The Martyr
The Mask
Meditation
The Metamorphoses Of A Vampire
Mists And Rains
Misty Sky
Moesta Et Errabunda
Morning Twilight
The Murderer's Wine
Music
My Beatrice
Obsession
On Delacroix's Picture Of Tasso In Prison
The Owls
The Pagan's Prayer
The Paranymph
A Phantom
The Pipe
The Poison
The Possessed
Praises Of My Frances
The Punishment Of Pride
Questioning At Midnight
The Ragpickers' Wine
The Ransom
The Rebel
The Red-haired Beggar Girl
The Remorse Of The Dead
Reversibility
Romantic Sunset
The Ruined Garden
The Sadness Of The Moon
Sed Non Satiata
Semper Eadem
The Serpent's Tooth
The Servant
The Seven Old Men (to Victor Hugo)
The Sick Muse
Sisina
Skeletons Digging: I
Skeletons Digging: Ii
The Solitary's Wine
Song Of Autumn
Sonnet Of Autumn
The Soul Of Wine
The Spiritual Dawn
Spleen
Spleen
Spleen
The Splendid Ship
The Sun
The Swan
Sympathetic Horror
The Thirst For Extinction
To A Creole Lady
To A Madonna
To A Malabar Girl
To A Passer-by
To The Reader
To The Reader
To Theodore De Banville
The Two Good Sisters
The Unforeseen
The Vampire
The Venal Muse
Verses For The Portrait Of Honore Daumier
The Voice
The Voyage
A Voyage To Cythera
What A Pair Of Eyes Can Promise
What Shall You Say Tonight
The Wicked Monk
You'd Take To Bed The Whole World
You, Whom I Worship