Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, BE DRUNK, by CHARLES BAUDELAIRE


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

BE DRUNK, by             Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
Last Line: "with wine, with poetry, or with virtue, as you please."
Subject(s): Drinks & Drinking; Wine


Be drunk, always. Nothing else matters; this is our sole concern. To ease
the pain as Time's dread burden weighs down upon your shoulders and crushes you
to earth, you must be drunk without respite.
Drunk with what? With wine, with poetry, or with virtue, as you please. But
be drunk.
And if sometimes, on the steps of palaces, on the green grass in a ditch, in
the dreary solitude of your room, you should wake and find your drunkenness half
over or fully gone, ask of wind or wave, of star or bird or clock, ask of all
that flies, of all that sighs, moves, sings, or speaks, ask them what time it
is; and wind, wave, star, bird, or clock will answer: "It is time to be drunk!
To throw off the chains and martyrdom of Time, be drunk; be drunk eternally!
With wine, with poetry, or with virtue, as you please."





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net