THE GIANTESS

by: Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867)

should have loved—erewhile when Heaven conceived

Each day, some child abnormal and obscene,

Beside a maiden giantess to have lived,

Like a luxurious cat at the feet of a queen;




To see her body flowering with her soul,

And grow, unchained, in awe-inspiring art,

Within the mists across her eyes that stole

To divine the fires entombed within her heart.




And oft to scramble o'er her mighty limbs,

And climb the slopes of her enormous knees,

Or in summer when the scorching sunlight streams




Across the country, to recline at ease,

And slumber in the shadow of her breast

Like an hamlet 'neath the mountain-crest.

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