Poems of Charles Baudelaire/Correspondences

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
For works with similar titles, see Correspondences.
Charles Baudelaire3935717Poems of Charles Baudelaire — Correspondences1906Frank Pearce Sturm

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.