Read the poem: “The Dog and the Vial”

by Charles Baudelaire

Extract of The Flowers of Evil

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French Literature – French Poetry – Charles Baudelaire
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The Dog and the Vial

“My pretty dog, my good dog, my doggy dear, come and smell this excellent perfume bought at the best scent-shop in the city.”

And the dog, wagging its tail, which is, I think, the poor creature’s substitute for a laugh or a smile, approached and curiously placed its damp nose to the opened vial; then, recoiling with sudden fright, it growled at me in reproach.

“Ah! wretched dog, if I had offered you a mass of excrement, you would have smelled it with delight, and probably have devoured it. So even you, unworthy companion of my unhappy life, resemble the public, to whom one must never offer delicate perfumes, which exasperate, but carefully raked-up mire.”

Translated by Joseph T. Shipley

< < < The Counterfeit Money
The Eyes of the Poor > > >

French Literature – French Poetry – Charles Baudelaire

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by Charles Baudelaire

Extract of The Flowers of Evil

The Dog and the Vial

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