Get Drunk Poem by Charles Baudelaire

Get Drunk

Rating: 3.5


Always be drunk.
That's it!
The great imperative!
In order not to feel
Time's horrid fardel
bruise your shoulders,
grinding you into the earth,
Get drunk and stay that way.
On what?
On wine, poetry, virtue, whatever.
But get drunk.
And if you sometimes happen to wake up
on the porches of a palace,
in the green grass of a ditch,
in the dismal loneliness of your own room,
your drunkenness gone or disappearing,
ask the wind,
the wave,
the star,
the bird,
the clock,
ask everything that flees,
everything that groans
or rolls
or sings,
everything that speaks,
ask what time it is;
and the wind,
the wave,
the star,
the bird,
the clock
will answer you:
"Time to get drunk!
Don't be martyred slaves of Time,
Get drunk!
Stay drunk!
On wine, virtue, poetry, whatever!"

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Michelle Powley 12 April 2005

I am using this poem 'get Drunk' by Charles Baudelaire for my french project! it seems really cool and i like the style of writing that is used. If you know more about this poem feel free to e-mail me and tell me more about it. E-mail me at nor.powleym@nearnorth.edu.on.ca. Please huury up though because my project is due on Monday April 18th. Thanks Michelle

5 12 Reply
Ashley Hawkes 05 October 2006

Brilliant! This is poetry to live by.

6 9 Reply
Townie Page 01 September 2017

Well this obviously took a lot of thought! Sigh.

1 0 Reply
Gangadharan Nair Pulingat 30 December 2014

Always drunk a nice and great poetry from the great poet. In fact idling mind and killing time is waste of human life and it is wonderful presentation and thinking in the poem and so likes.

2 3 Reply
David Jaros 31 May 2013

My favorite poem. Beautiful words to live by.

16 4 Reply
Brianna Burkholder 30 September 2009

What a raw, simple, yet so lovely notion! Ah, but Charles! There is beauty in soberiety aswell haha

7 14 Reply
Jay Spence 04 March 2007

'Get drunk! Stay drunk! On wine, virtue, poetry, whatever! ' I love that. And to 'Amber Zenisek', I'm sorry about your situation, but I doubt that was the point Baudelaire was trying to make. And you can't blame your father for your or your brother's behavior. As worthless as your father may be, the only person who can make your life better is you. That was a tough lesson for me to learn, so I wish you the best of luck.

11 6 Reply
READ THIS POEM IN OTHER LANGUAGES
Close
Error Success