I mean it's not as though I wasn't aware of existence. But I didn't realize how much I liked his poetry until I read the Nikopol Trilogy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Baudelaire
... If rape or arson, poison, or the knife
Has wove no pleasing patterns in the stuff
Of this drab canvas we accept as life—
It is because we are not bold enough!
(Roy Campbell's translation)
