Even When She Walks

Charles Baudelaire 1821 (Paris) – 1867 (Paris)



Even when she walks she seems to dance!
Her garments writhe and glisten like long snakes
obedient to the rhythm of the wands
by which a fakir wakens them to grace.

Like both the desert and the desert sky
insensible to human suffering,
and like the ocean’s endless labyrinth
she shows her body with indifference.

Precious minerals are her polished eyes,
and in her strange symbolic nature
angel and sphinx unite,
where diamonds, gold, and steel dissolve into one light,
shining forever, useless as a star,
the sterile woman’s icy majesty.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

27 sec read
141

Quick analysis:

Scheme XXXX XXXX XXAAXX
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 544
Words 93
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 6

Charles Baudelaire

Charles Pierre Baudelaire was a French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist, art critic, and pioneering translator of Edgar Allan Poe. more…

All Charles Baudelaire poems | Charles Baudelaire Books

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