Lament Of An Icarus

Charles Baudelaire 1821 (Paris) – 1867 (Paris)



Lovers of whores don’t care,
happy, calm and replete:
But my arms are incomplete,
grasping the empty air.
Thanks to stars, incomparable ones,
that blaze in the depths of the skies,
all my destroyed eyes
see, are the memories of suns.
I look, in vain, for beginning and end
of the heavens’ slow revolve:
Under an unknown eye of fire, I ascend
feeling my wings dissolve.
And, scorched by desire for the beautiful,
I will not know the bliss,
of giving my name to that abyss,
that knows my tomb and funeral.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 26, 2023

28 sec read
133

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABBACDDCEFEFGHHG
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 500
Words 94
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 16

Charles Baudelaire

Charles Pierre Baudelaire was a French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist, art critic, and pioneering translator of Edgar Allan Poe. more…

All Charles Baudelaire poems | Charles Baudelaire Books

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