Listen! They must be words, drifting between. These living pillars: elusive, never simple.--from Correspondences Against the normal, the healthy, and the rational, the imagination of poet Charles Baudelaire plunged into the Flowers of Evil, offering extreme images and work devoted to exploring such themes as drugs, sex, and art. In addition to the haunting and highly individual prose poems called Spleen, this volume offers masterpieces such as To the Reader, Albatross, Invitation to the Voyage, and The Cracked Bell.