The Mind

The Giantess

by Charles Baudelaire 1821–1867

Translated by Cyril Scott (1909) · From Les Fleurs du Mal (1857)

The Mind

I should have loved--erewhile when Heaven conceived
Each day, some child abnormal and obscene,
Beside a maiden giantess to have lived,
Like a luxurious cat at the feet of a queen;

To see her body flowering with her soul,
And grow, unchained, in awe-inspiring art,
Within the mists across her eyes that stole
To divine the fires entombed within her heart.

And oft to scramble o'er her mighty limbs,
And climb the slopes of her enormous knees,
Or in summer when the scorching sunlight streams

Across the country, to recline at ease,
And slumber in the shadow of her breast
Like an hamlet 'neath the mountain-crest.

MLA

Baudelaire, Charles. “The Giantess.” Translated by Cyril Scott. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/baudelaire/11/.

Chicago

Baudelaire, Charles. “The Giantess.” Translated by Cyril Scott. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/baudelaire/11/.

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