Poems of Charles Baudelaire/Sunset

by Charles Baudelaire

For works with similar titles, see Sunset.

Sunset.

Fair is the sun when first he flames above,
Flinging his joy down in a happy beam;
And happy he who can salute with love
The sunset far more glorious than a dream.

Flower, stream, and furrow!—I have seen them all
In the sun’s eye swoon like one trembling heart—
Though it be late let us with speed depart
To catch at least one ray ere it fall!

But I pursue the fading god in vain,
For conquering Night makes firm her dark domain,
Mist and gloom fall, and terrors glide between,

And graveyard odours in the shadow swim,
And my faint footsteps on the marsh’s rim
Bruise the cold snail and crawling toad unseen.