Explore "Artemis Altera" by Charles Pierre Baudelaire on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
O full of candour and compassion, / Whom love and worship both would praise, / Love cannot frame nor worship fashion / The image of your fearless ways!
How show your noble brow's dark pallor, / Your chivalrous casque of ebon hair, / Your eyes' bright strength, your lips' soft valour, / Your supple shoulders and hands that dare?
Our souls when naively you examine, / Your sword of innocence, flaming, huge, / Sweeps over us, and there is famine / Within the ports of subterfuge.
You hate contempt and love not laughter; / With your sharp spear of virgin will / You harry the wicked strong; but after, / O huntress who could never kill,
Should they be trodden down or pierced, / Swift, swift, you fly with burning cheek / To place your beauty's shield reversed / Above the vile defenceless weak!