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The Lid

Topics: classic

Whatever place he goes, on land or sea,     under a sky on fire, or a polar sun,     servant of Jesus, follower of Cytherea,     shadowy beggar, or Croesus the glittering one,     city-dweller or rustic, traveller or sedentary,     whether his tiny brain works fast or slow,     everywhere man knows the terror of mystery,     and with a trembling eye looks high or low.     Above, the Sky! That burial vault that stifles,     a ceiling lit for a comic opera, blind walls,     where each actor treads a blood-drenched stage:     Freethinkers fear, the hermit sets his hope on:     the Sky! The black lid of the giant cauldron,     under which we vast, invisible Beings rage.

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"Whatever place he goes, on land or sea,..."

"The Lid" is a quintessential example of Charles Baudelaire's signature style... ### Why We Love This Line At Linespedia, we believe that poetry is the ultimate sanctuary for the soul...

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"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

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"Je suis comme le roi dun pays pluvieux,     Riche..."

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