Elevation, Poem by Charles Baudelaire

Poem by Charles Baudelaire Collection The Flowers of EvilThemes ArtPeriod 19th century

Above the ponds, above the valleys,
Above the mountains, woods, clouds, and seas,
Beyond the sun, beyond the ethers,
Beyond the confines of the starry spheres,

My spirit, you move with agility,
And, like a good swimmer who swoons in the wave,
You joyfully furrow the profound immensity
With an inexpressible and virile delight.

Fly far away from these morbid miasmas;
Go purify yourself in the upper air,
And drink, like a pure and divine liqueur,
The clear fire that fills the limpid spaces.

Behind the boredom and vast sorrows
That weigh down the misty existence,
Happy is he who can with a vigorous wing
Leap toward the luminous and serene fields;

He whose thoughts, like larks,
Take free flight toward the heavens in the morning,
– Who hovers over life, and understands without effort
The language of flowers and of silent things!

Charles Baudelaire

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