When Mother Nature filled the early world
With mammoth creatures suckled at her teat
I could have lived near some gigantic girl,
Like a little cat, sprawled at a queen's feet,
And watched her body ripen and grow wise,
Her soul grow strong in terrifying games,
Or from the smoke clouds darkening her eyes,
Guessed when her heart was going up in flames;
Wandering through her wilderness at ease,
I could have conquered those enormous knees,
And some hot summer when she lay at rest
Stretched out across the fertile earth, I'd put
My head down in the shadow of her breast--
A sleepy hamlet at the mountain's foot.
- Charles-Pierre Baudelaire (1821-1867)
