THE TEMPTATION
by: Charles Baudelaire
- HE Demon,
in my chamber high,
- This morning came to visit me,
- And, thinking he would find some fault,
- He whispered: "I would know of thee
-
- Among the many lovely things
- That make the magic of her face,
- Among the beauties, black and rose,
- That make her body's charm and grace,
-
- Which is most fair?" Thou didst reply
- To the Abhorred, O soul of mine:
- "No single beauty is the best
- When she is all one flower divine.
-
- When all things charm me I ignore
- Which one alone brings most delight;
- She shines before me like the dawn,
- And she consoles me like the night.
-
- The harmony is far too great,
- That governs all her body fair,
- For impotence to analyse
- And say which note is sweetest there.
-
- O mystic metamorphosis!
- My senses into one sense flow--
- Her voice makes perfume when she speaks,
- Her breath is music faint and low!"
'The Temptation' is reprinted from
The Poems and Prose Poems of Charles Baudelaire. Ed. James
Huneker. New York: Brentano's, 1919. |
MORE POEMS BY CHARLES BAUDELAIRE |
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