Flowers of Evil

<h3><SPAN name="Illusionary_Love" id="Illusionary_Love"></SPAN>Illusionary Love</h3> <p class="margin-b"> When I behold thee wander by, my languorous love,<br/> To songs of viols which throughout the dome resound,<br/> Harmonious and stately as thy footsteps move,<br/> Bestowing forth the languor of thy glance profound.<br/> <br/> When I regard thee, glowing in the gaslight rays,<br/> Thy pallid brow embellished by a charm obscure,<br/> Here where the evening torches light the twilight haze,<br/> Thine eyes attracting me like those of a portraiture,<br/> <br/> I say&mdash;How beautiful she is! how strangely rich!<br/> A mighty memory, royal and commanding tower,<br/> A garland: and her heart, bruised like a ruddy peach,<br/> Is ripe&mdash;like her body for Love's sapient power.<br/> <br/> Art thou, that spicy Autumn-fruit with taste supreme?<br/> Art thou a funeral vase inviting tears of grief?<br/> Aroma&mdash;causing one of Eastern wastes to dream;<br/> A downy cushion, bunch of flowers or golden sheaf?<br/> <br/> I know that there are eyes, most melancholy ones,<br/> Wherein no precious secret deeply hidden lies,<br/> Resplendent shrines, devoid of relics, sacred stones,<br/> More empty, more profound than ye yourselves, O skies?<br/> <br/> Yea, does thy semblance, not alone for me suffice,<br/> To kindle senses which the cruel truth abhor?<br/> All one to me! thy folly or thy heart of ice,<br/> Decoy or mask, all hail! thy beauty I adore!<br/></p> <hr style="width: 35%;" /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />