Invitation to the Voyage
Invitation to the Voyage - context Summary
Published in 1860
Published in 1860 in Les Fleurs du Mal, Baudelaire’s "Invitation to the Voyage" imagines an idealized, sensual refuge shared with a beloved. The speaker paints a calm, ordered, and luxurious foreign landscape—ornate rooms, fragrant flowers, sleeping canals—as the setting for complete emotional and physical union. The poem expresses longing for harmony, aesthetic perfection, and escape from urban sterility, reflecting Baudelaire’s personal yearnings for beauty and intimacy.
Read Complete AnalysesMy child, my sister, Think of the rapture Of living together there! Of loving at will, Of loving till death, In the land that is like you! The misty sunlight Of those cloudy skies Has for my spirit the charms, So mysterious, Of your treacherous eyes, Shining brightly through their tears. There all is order and beauty, Luxury, peace, and pleasure. Gleaming furniture, Polished by the years, Will ornament our bedroom; The rarest flowers Mingling their fragrance With the faint scent of amber, The ornate ceilings, The limpid mirrors, The oriental splendor, All would whisper there Secretly to the soul In its soft, native language. There all is order and beauty, Luxury, peace, and pleasure. See on the canals Those vessels sleeping. Their mood is adventurous; It's to satisfy Your slightest desire That they come from the ends of the earth. — The setting suns Adorn the fields, The canals, the whole city, With hyacinth and gold; The world falls asleep In a warm glow of light. There all is order and beauty, Luxury, peace, and pleasure. Translated by - William Aggeler
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