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The Venal Muse by Charles Baudelaire   
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Charles Baudelaire
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Charles Baudelaire
(1821-1867 / Paris / France)
53 poems of Charles Baudelaire
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  The Venal Muse

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  O muse of my heart, lover of palaces,
Will you bring, when January lets loose its sleet
And its black evenings without solace,
An ember to warm my violet feet?
What will revive your bruised shoulders,
The nocturnal rays that pierce the shutters?
When you cannot feel your palace, just your empty billfold,
How will you harvest the gold of azure vaults and gutters?

You should, to earn your bread today
Like a choir boy with a censer to wave,
Sings hymns with feeling but without belief.

Or, a starving rip-off artist, selling your charm
And your laughter shades the tears so no one sees the harm
In bringing to bloom an ordinary rat, a vulgar thief.


Translated by William A. Sigler


Submitted by Ryan McGuire


Charles Baudelaire

Submitted Date Monday, January 13, 2003



Read poems about / on: january, laughter, today, heart

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  Comments about this poem (The Venal Muse by Charles Baudelaire )
Lucianne Fasolo (9/26/2007 8:50:00 AM)
0 person liked.
0 person did not like.
I just love this poem! But the two first stanzas of the sonnet weren't merged in the original...
 
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