Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, EXOTIC PERFUME, by CHARLES BAUDELAIRE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

EXOTIC PERFUME, by             Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: When with shut eyes in autumn twilight dim
Last Line: With voices of the sailors as they sing.


WHEN with shut eyes in autumn twilight dim
I breathe thy warm breast's odour, then I see
That happy shore where everlastingly
The sun smites downward from his burning rim;

An idle land where Nature in her whim
Breeds many a strange and sweetly burdened tree;
Where women gaze from candid eyes and free,
And the nude men are sinewy and slim.

Thine odour bears me to that blesséd zone:
Yonder the limp sails to the yard-arms cling,
Still weary with their long sea-voyaging;
The perfume of green tamarinds is blown
About my nostrils, and to me grows one
With voices of the sailors as they sing.





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