Page:Poems and Baudelaire Flowers.djvu/51

Rh Nature in her lavish lustiness
 * Bred day by day new, strange monstrosities,

Would I had lived with a young giantess
 * Like a warm cat who at a queen’s feet lies.

’Twere sweet to watch her soul and body blossom
 * While she disported her in terrible wise;

To guess if a fierce flame burnt in her bosom
 * By the wet mists that swam within her eyes.

Ah! freely o’er her mighty limbs to run,
 * To crawl upon the bend of her vast knees,

And when in summer, tired of the pestilent sun,
 * Across the plain she stretches calm and still,

Within her breasts’ cool shade to sleep at ease
 * Like some small hamlet sheltered by a hill.