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"In repugnant things we discover charms"
(To the Reader)
"I shall suck, to drown my rancor,
Nepenthe and the good hemlock
From the charming tips of those pointed breasts
That have never guarded a heart."
(Le Léthé, translated by William Aggeler)
Daring for an 1857 collection (some of the poems were known even before that), this is full of death and decay, breasts and voluptuous lips, wine and opium. There are occasional rays of the sun, but mostly the verses are about the deepest depths of sexuality an ...more
(To the Reader)
"I shall suck, to drown my rancor,
Nepenthe and the good hemlock
From the charming tips of those pointed breasts
That have never guarded a heart."
(Le Léthé, translated by William Aggeler)
Daring for an 1857 collection (some of the poems were known even before that), this is full of death and decay, breasts and voluptuous lips, wine and opium. There are occasional rays of the sun, but mostly the verses are about the deepest depths of sexuality an ...more
Having to select an "edition" of this that I read (or anything going back more than ten years) is rather useless. Heavens knows what version it was back in 1971, but I do remember the poems (probably in part from reading bits of them quoted here and there and cultural references to them).
I've always thought "the flowers of evil" is one of the great titles of Western Lit. ...more
I've always thought "the flowers of evil" is one of the great titles of Western Lit. ...more
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