BAUDELAIRE, CHARLES

     “Grant me the grace, Lord God Almighty, to compose a few beautiful verses which will prove to me that I am not the least of all men.” (Starkie, 1958, 535)

     “Lord, my God! You the Creator, You the Master; You who has made law and liberty; You the Sovereign who lets things be; You the Judge who forgives; You who is full of motives and causes, and whom, perhaps, has placed within my spirit the taste of horror to convert my heart, like healing at the point of a knife; Lord, have mercy, have mercy of fools and foolishness! O Creator! Can there be monsters in the eyes of Him who knows why they exist, how they are made, and how they could not have been made?” (Ibid., 547)