Page:Poems of Baudelaire Sturm.djvu/82

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
20
Correspondences.

Correspondences.

In Nature’s temple living pillars rise,
   And words are murmured none have understood,
   And man must wander through a tangled wood
Of symbols watching him with friendly eyes.

As long-drawn echoes heard far-off and dim
   Mingle to one deep sound and fade away ;
   Vast as the night and brilliant as the day,
Colour and sound and perfume speak to him.

Some perfumes are as fragrant as a child,
   Sweet as the sound of hautboys, meadow-green ;
Others, corrupted, rich, exultant, wild,

Have all the expansion of things infinite:
   As amber, incense, musk, and benzoin,
Which sing the sense’s and the soul’s delight.