Perhaps because I am aspergery (one-track obsessed) or, as

thinks, being an ISTJ, I have very little natural inclination toward poetry (although I love prose aphorisms and maxims). There are a couple of rare poems I do love - Shelley’s Ozymandias (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozymandias ) and Yeat’s The Second Coming (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Second_Coming… come to mind. However, a balanced education requires knowledge of the works of the great poets so I will be delving into Pound, Blake, and others.

I picked up Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du Mal (1857), en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Fleurs_du_mal , i.e. The Flowers of Evil, a volume of French poetry for which he is mostly known. Baudelaire lived his life in poverty, addicted to opium and whores, and died fairly young from syphilis. His poetry caused a scandal at the time because it mostly focused on romantic love, ideals of beauty, but also used swear words and touched on lesbianism and other forbidden topics. Honestly I didn’t love it - it seemed to be pushing societal boundaries that have long since been surpassed - but there were seven out of the hundred plus poems that stood out to me. These were (click and scroll down for English translation):

1. To the Reader: fleursdumal.org/poem/099

2. The Enemy: fleursdumal.org/poem/109

3. You’d Sleep With Anyone: fleursdumal.org/poem/122

4. The Murderer’s Wine: fleursdumal.org/poem/194

5. The Solitary’s Wine: fleursdumal.org/poem/195

6. Metamorphoses of the Vampire: fleursdumal.org/poem/186

7. The Death of the Poor: fleursdumal.org/poem/198