Madrigal Poems
Gloomy Madrigal
by Charles Baudelaire
What's it to me that you are sage?
Be beautiful! and be sad! Tears
Add a charm to the countenance
As a stream does to a landscape;
Storms make the flowers fresh again.
I love you most of all when joy
Flees from your oppressed brow,
When your heart is drowned in horror,
When the frightful cloud of the Past
Is spread out over your Present.
......
What is Life, or Worldly Pleasure
by William Byrd
What is life, or worldly pleasure?
What is wealth or golden treasure?
What is grace or Princes smiling?
What are all in one combinde,
which divided so displease?
Apish toyes, and vaine delights,
mindes unrest, and soules disease.
When Younglings First on Cupid Fix Their Sight
by William Byrd
When younglings first on Cupid fix their sight,
and see him naked, blindfold and a boy,
though bow and shafts and firebrand be his might,
yet ween they he can work them none annoy.
And therefore with his purple wings they play,
for glorious seemeth love though light as feather,
and when they have done, they ween to scape away,
for blind men they say, shoot they know not whither.
But when by proof they find that he did see,
......
What is Life, or Worldly Pleasure
by William Byrd
What is life, or worldly pleasure?
What is wealth or golden treasure?
What is grace or Princes smiling?
What are all in one combinde,
which divided so displease?
Apish toyes, and vaine delights,
mindes unrest, and soules disease.
When Younglings First on Cupid Fix Their Sight
by William Byrd
When younglings first on Cupid fix their sight,
and see him naked, blindfold and a boy,
though bow and shafts and firebrand be his might,
yet ween they he can work them none annoy.
And therefore with his purple wings they play,
for glorious seemeth love though light as feather,
and when they have done, they ween to scape away,
for blind men they say, shoot they know not whither.
But when by proof they find that he did see,
......
Gloomy Madrigal
by Charles Baudelaire
What's it to me that you are sage?
Be beautiful! and be sad! Tears
Add a charm to the countenance
As a stream does to a landscape;
Storms make the flowers fresh again.
I love you most of all when joy
Flees from your oppressed brow,
When your heart is drowned in horror,
When the frightful cloud of the Past
Is spread out over your Present.
......
