Versos English Charles Baudelaire Sympathetic Horror

English poem

Sympathetic Horror

by (1821–1867)

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'From that sky livid, bizarre as your tortured destiny, what thoughts fill your empty heart, Freethinker, answer me.' Insatiable and avid for vague and obscure skies, I'll not groan like Ovid, banned from Rome and paradise. Skies, shores split and seamed, my pride's mirrored in you: your clouds in mourning, too, are the hearses of my dreams, Hell's reflected in your light, where my heart takes delight.