REVERSIBILITY
by: Charles Baudelaire
- NGEL
of gaiety, have you tasted grief?
- Shame and remorse and sobs and weary spite,
- And the vague terrors of the fearful night
- That crush the heart up like a crumpled leaf?
- Angel of gaiety, have you tasted grief?
-
- Angel of kindness, have you tasted hate?
- With hands clenched in the shade and tears of gall,
- When Vengeance beats her hellish battle-call,
- And makes herself the captain of our fate,
- Angel of kindness, have you tasted hate?
-
- Angel of health, did you ever know pain,
- Which like an exile trails his tired footfalls
- The cold length of the white infirmary walls,
- With lips compressed, seeking the sun in vain?
- Angel of health, did ever you know pain?
-
- Angel of beauty, do you wrinkles know?
- Know you the fear of age, the torment vile
- Of reading secret horror in the smile
- Of eyes your eyes have loved since long ago?
- Angel of beauty, do you wrinkles know?
-
- Angle of happiness, and joy, and light,
- Old David would have asked for youth afresh
- From the pure touch of your enchanted flesh;
- I but implore your prayers to aid my plight,
- Angel of happiness, and joy, and light.
'Reversibility' 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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