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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

EPITAPH FOR A CONDEMNED BOOK by CHARLES BAUDELAIRE

Poem Explanation Poet Analysis

First Line: READER PLACID AND BUCOLIC / SOBER, GUILELESS MAN OF THE GOOD
Last Line: PITY ME! . . . IF NOT, BE DAMNED!
Subject(s): BOOKS; EPITAPHS; READING;
Reader placid and bucolic,
Sober, guileless man of the good,
Fling away this saturnine book,
Orgiastic and melancholic.

Unless with Satan, wily master,
You have studied your rhetoric,
Fling it away! You will understand none of it,
Or think me hysteric.

But if you are able, unenticed,
To plunge your eye in the depths,
Read me, that you learn to love me;

Inquiring soul who suffers
And goes seeking your paradise,
Pity me! . . . If not, be damned!



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