Poetry
2 postsThe Albatross
Poem · Charles Baudelaire
I have come back to this poem more often than to any other in Les Fleurs du Mal, and I do not entirely know why. It is not the most ambitious in the book. It is not the most beautiful. The metaphor is
great0506·5/16/2026
Inferno, Canto III: The Gate of Hell
Sacred text (Italian narrative poem) · Dante Alighieri
The inscription above the gate of Hell is the most quoted passage in the Inferno, and the third line in particular has had a longer afterlife than the rest of the poem. Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'
great0506·5/16/2026
