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The Owls - (Twelve Translations From Charles Baudelaire)

Topics: classic

'Neath their black yews in solemn state              The owls are sitting in a row              Like foreign gods; and even so          Blink their red eyes; they meditate.          Quite motionless they hold them thus              Until at last the day is done,              And driving down the slanting sun,          The sad night is victorious.          They teach the wise who gives them ear          That in this world he most should fear              All things which loud or restless be.          Who, dazzled by a passing shade,              Follows it, never will be free          Till the dread penalty be paid.

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"'Neath their black yews in solemn state..."

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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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