Aug 9, 2015
My love, do you recall the object which we saw, That fair, sweet, summer morn! At a turn in the path a foul carcass On a gravel strewn bed, The poem then takes on a tone of sexual arousal. It is almost like there is a stirring of perverse lust directed toward the carcass. Its legs raised in the air, like a lustful woman, Burning and dripping with poisons, Displayed in a shameless, nonchalant way Its belly, swollen with gases. The fourth stanza describes something beautiful emerging from the decomposing animal, and for me, this is the key to unlocking the meaning of the poem: And the sky was watching that superb cadaver Blossom like a flower.
Charles Baudelaire, The Carcass
