Beauty

Beauty
by Charles Baudelaire

I am as beautiful, O mortals! as a dream of stone,
And my breast, on which each man is wounded in turn,
Is made to inspire in the poet a love
As eternal and mute as matter.

I preside in the heavens like a misunderstood sphinx;
I unite a heart of snow with the whiteness of swans;
I hate all movement which displaces lines,
And I never weep and never laugh.

The poets before my great poses,
Which I seem to borrow from the proudest monuments,
Will consume their days in austere studies;

For I have, in order to fascinate these docile lovers,
Pure mirrors which make all things more beautiful:
My eyes, my large eyes with their eternal light!

Beau"ty (?), n.; pl. Beauties (#). [OE. beaute, beute, OF. beaut'e, biaut'e, Pr. beltat, F. beaut'e, fr. an assumed LL. bellitas, from L. bellus pretty. See Beau.]

1.

An assemblage or graces or properties pleasing to the eye, the ear, the intellect, the aesthetic faculty, or the moral sense.

Beauty consists of a certain composition of color and figure, causing delight in the beholder. Locke.

The production of beauty by a multiplicity of symmetrical parts uniting in a consistent whole. Wordsworth.

The old definition of beauty, in the Roman school, was, "multitude in unity;" and there is no doubt that such is the principle of beauty. Coleridge.

2.

A particular grace, feature, ornament, or excellence; anything beautiful; as, the beauties of nature.

3.

A beautiful person, esp. a beautiful woman.

All the admired beauties of Verona. Shak.

4.

Prevailing style or taste; rage; fashion.

She stained her hair yellow, which was then the beauty. Jer. Taylor.

Beauty spot, a patch or spot placed on the face with intent to heighten beauty by contrast.

© Webster 1913.