“We shall embark upon the Sea of Shadows, gay
As a young passenger on his first voyage out. . . .
What are those sweet, funereal voices? ‘Come this way,
All ye that are in trouble!—all ye that are in doubt!’ . . .

Pour us your poison wine that makes us feel like gods!
Our brains are burning up!—there’s nothing left to do
But plunge into the void!—hell? heaven? what’s the odds?
We’re bound for the Unknown, in search of something new!”

—Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867), from Travel, translated by Edna St. Vincent Millay, 1936.