Correspondances [English translation]

All nature is one temple, the living aisles whereof

Murmur in a soft language, half strange, half understood;

Man wanders there as through a cabalistic wood,

Aware of eyes that watch him in the leaves above.

Like voices echoing in his senses from beyond

Life's watery source, and which into one voice unite,

Vast as the turning planet clothed in darkness and light,

So do all sounds and hues and fragrances correspond.

Perfumes there are as sweet as the music of pipes and strings,

As pure as the naked flesh of children, as full of peace

As wide green prairies — and there are others, having the whole

Corrupt proud all-pervasiveness of infinite things,

Like frankincense, and musk, and myrrh, and ambergris,

That cry of the ecstasy of the body and of the soul.