The Mind

Music

by Charles Baudelaire 1821–1867

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

The Mind

Oft Music possesses me like the seas!
To my planet pale,
'Neath a ceiling of mist, in the lofty breeze,
I set my sail.

With inflated lungs and expanded chest,
Like to a sail,
On the backs of the heaped-up billows I rest--
Which the shadows veil--

I feel all the anguish within me arise
Of a ship in distress;
The tempest, the rain, 'neath the lowering skies,

My body caress;
At times, the calm pool or the mirror clear
Of my despair!

MLA

Baudelaire, Charles. “Music.” Translated by Cyril Scott. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/baudelaire/37/.

Chicago

Baudelaire, Charles. “Music.” Translated by Cyril Scott. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/baudelaire/37/.

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