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The Venal Muse

Topics: classic

Muse of my heart, lover of palaces,     When January comes with wind and sleet,     During the snowy eve's long weariness,     Will there be fire to warm thy violet feet?     Wilt thou reanimate thy marble shoulders     In the moon-beams that through the window fly?     Or when thy purse dries up, thy palace moulders,     Reap the far star-gold of the vaulted sky?     For thou, to keep thy body to thy soul,     Must swing a censor, wear a holy stole,     And chaunt Te Deums with unbelief between.     Or, like a starving mountebank, expose     Thy beauty and thy tear-drowned smile to those     Who wait thy jests to drive away thy spleen.

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"Muse of my heart, lover of palaces,..."

This evocative piece by Charles Baudelaire, titled "The Venal Muse", represents a masterful exploration of classic. The lines capture a profound emotional resonance... ### 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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