senses had many name him an unequaled master; the effect on fellow artists was "immense, prodigious, unexpected, mingled with admiration and with some indefinable anxious fear", while the regime of the Second Empire had Baudelaire prosecuted and fined for his "insult to public decency". Baudelaire's style had a tremendous influence on French poetry, and also on English writers; he was a pioneering translator, and created strong ties with the Anglo-Saxon literature. We have selected for you 16 of his most striking poems, indispensable masterpieces of passion that will take your breath away: Correspondences, Exotic Perfume, The Sick Muse, The Tempation, and many others.