Poems and Baudelaire Flowers/Ill-Luck

by Charles Baudelaire

ILL-LUCK

O Sisyphus, thy strength were meet
A load so heavy to sustain;
The soul for work is very fain,
But Art is long, and Time is fleet.

Towards a lonely cemetery
From all famed sepulchres apart,
Like to a muffled drum my heart
Beats funeral marches ceaselessly.

Jewels many and many a one
Lie hid in dark oblivion
Far, far from pick or plummet’s ken;

Many sweet flowers’ scented breath
Is lavished till they fade in death
In solitudes untrod by men.