Read the poem: “Sonnet XVIII”

by Charles Baudelaire

Extract of The Flowers of Evil

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American Literature – American Poetry – Charles Baudelaire
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Sonnet XVIII

In undulant robes with nacreous sheen impearled
She walks as in some stately saraband;
Or like lithe snakes by sacred charmers curled
In cadence wreathing on the slender wand.

Calm as blue wastes of sky and desert sand
That watch unmoved the sorrows of this world;
With slow regardless sweep as on the strand
The long swell of the woven sea-waves swirled.

Her polished orbs are like a mystic gem,
And, while this strange and symbolled being links
The inviolate angel and the antique sphinx,

Insphered in gold, steel, light and diadem
The splendour of a lifeless star endows
With clear cold majesty the barren spouse.

Translated by W. J. Robertson

< < < Sonnet of Autumn
Spleen > > >

American Literature – American Poetry – Charles Baudelaire

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by Charles Baudelaire

Extract of The Flowers of Evil

Sonnet XVIII

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