Page:Poems and Baudelaire Flowers.djvu/48

This page has been validated.
44
BLOSSOMS OF EVIL

What boots it, seraph or siren, from God’s height
Or Satan’s hell, O queen! if thou dost come
Soft-eyed, to make, with rhythm, scent, and light,
The world less dull and time less burdensome?

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.