Page:Poems and Baudelaire Flowers.djvu/78

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pay his ransom man must toil
 * With Reason's implement alone
 * To plough and rake and free from stone

Two plots of hard volcanic soil.

And if he would from out them wrench
 * A few thorns or a meagre flower,
 * Continually a heavy shower

Of his salt sweat their roots must drench.

The one is Art, the other Love;
 * And on that last and terrible day
 * The wrath of the stern judge to stay

And 'scape the vengeance from above,

He must show barns whose uttermost
 * Recesses swell with ripened grain,
 * And blooms whose shapes and hues will gain

The suffrage of the Heavenly Host.