Page:Poems and Baudelaire Flowers.djvu/63

Rh Hope glimmered in the windows of the Inn,
 * But Hope is dead for aye!

Moonless and rayless, can poor travellers win
 * To shelter from the way?

The Devil made dark the windows of the Inn!

Dost love the damned, adorable sorceress?
 * Dost know the smitten sore?

Dost know Remorse that, grim and pitiless,
 * Feeds at my heart’s red core?

Dost love the damned, adorable sorceress?

My soul is prey to the Irreparable,
 * It gnaws with tooth accurst,

And, termite-like, the cunning spawn of hell
 * Mines the foundations first!

My soul is prey to the Irreparable!

Often within a theatre I have seen,
 * ’Thwart the orchestral roar,

A dazzling Fairy stand in sudden sheen
 * Where all was gloom before!

Often within a theatre I have seen

A being made of light and gold and gauze
 * Fling Demons to their fate!

But on my heart’s dark stage an endless pause
 * Is all, and I await

In vain, in vain the Spirit with wings of gauze!