The poem describes an alchemist who turns gold into iron and paradise into hell through his experiments and sorrows. He sees a dead body wrapped in clouds and lightning and builds towering sarcophagi on the shores of heaven. The alchemist's work is assisted by an unknown Hermes who fills his dreams with fear as he follows in the footsteps of King Midas as one of the first alchemists.
The poem describes an alchemist who turns gold into iron and paradise into hell through his experiments and sorrows. He sees a dead body wrapped in clouds and lightning and builds towering sarcophagi on the shores of heaven. The alchemist's work is assisted by an unknown Hermes who fills his dreams with fear as he follows in the footsteps of King Midas as one of the first alchemists.
The poem describes an alchemist who turns gold into iron and paradise into hell through his experiments and sorrows. He sees a dead body wrapped in clouds and lightning and builds towering sarcophagi on the shores of heaven. The alchemist's work is assisted by an unknown Hermes who fills his dreams with fear as he follows in the footsteps of King Midas as one of the first alchemists.
The poem describes an alchemist who turns gold into iron and paradise into hell through his experiments and sorrows. He sees a dead body wrapped in clouds and lightning and builds towering sarcophagi on the shores of heaven. The alchemist's work is assisted by an unknown Hermes who fills his dreams with fear as he follows in the footsteps of King Midas as one of the first alchemists.
(Translated "from the French of Charles Pierre Baudelaire")
One with his fervor shall inform
The world, and one with all his sorrow: One sees a glad, unsetting morrow, One hears the whisper of the worm.
Hermes unknown, whose hand assists
My toil, and fills my dreams with fear, Through thee I am the mournful peer Of Midas, first of alchemists.
Fine gold to iron corruptible
I turn, and paradise to hell; In winding-sheets of cloud and levin A dear cadaver I descry; And build upon the shores of heaven Towering proud sarcophagi