Exotic Perfume
When, with closed eyes, on a hot afternoon,The scent of thine ardent breast I inhale,Celestial vistas my spirit assail;Caressed by the flames of an endless sun.
A langorous island, where Nature aboundsWith exotic trees and luscious fruit;And with men whose bodies are slim and astute,And with women whose frankness delights and astounds.
By thy perfume enticed to this region remote,A port I see, laden with mast and with boat,Still wearied and torn by the distant brine;
While the tamarisk-odours that dreamily throngThe air, round my slumberous senses intwine,And mix, in my soul, with the mariners' song.
Words in this poem
- afternoon n.
- The part of the day which follows noon, between noon and evening.
- luscious a.
- Sweet; delicious; very grateful to the taste; toothsome; excessively sweet or rich. [Prob. for lustious, fr. lusty, or perh. a corruption of luxurious. Cf. Lush, Lusty.]
- astute a.
- Critically discerning; sagacious; shrewd; subtle; crafty. [L. astutus, fr. astus craft, cunning; perh. cognate with E. acute.]
- frankness n.
- The quality of being frank; candor; openess; ingenuousness; fairness; liberality.
- dreamily adv.
- As if in a dream; softly; slowly; languidly.
- slumberous a.
- Inviting slumber; soporiferous.
- intwine v. t.
- To twine or twist into, or together; to wreathe; as, a wreath of flowers intwined. [Cf. Entwine.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Exotic Perfume is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Flowers of Evil, Project Gutenberg ebook #36098; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Charles Baudelaire, Exotic Perfume, in The Flowers of Evil (1909), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #36098, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/baudelaire-flowers-of-evil/exotic-perfume.html, id L25407.
Form and metre
Exotic Perfume is 14 lines in 4 stanzas. The metre is anapaestic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
See other poems in anapaestic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 -AA- afternoon · inhaleA · assailA · sun
- 2 ABBA aboundsA · fruitB · astuteB · astoundsA
- 3 AA- remoteA · boatA · brine
- 4 A-A throngA · intwine · songA
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against anapaestic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| When, with closed eyes, on a hot afternoon, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| The scent of thine ardent breast I inhale, | 10 | ····/˘··˘/ |
| Celestial vistas my spirit assail; | 10 | ˘/˘/˘·/˘˘/ |
| Caressed by the flames of an endless sun. | 10 | ˘/·····/˘· |
| A langorous island, where Nature abounds | 11 | ····/˘·/˘˘/ |
| With exotic trees and luscious fruit; | 9 | ·˘/˘··/˘· |
| And with men whose bodies are slim and astute, | 11 | ····/˘···˘/ |
| And with women whose frankness delights and astounds. | 12 | ··/˘·/˘˘/·˘/ |
| By thy perfume enticed to this region remote, | 12 | ··˘/˘/··/˘˘/ |
| A port I see, laden with mast and with boat, | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| Still wearied and torn by the distant brine; | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| While the tamarisk-odours that dreamily throng | 12 | ··/˘˘/˘·/˘˘· |
| The air, round my slumberous senses intwine, | 11 | ····/˘˘/˘˘/ |
| And mix, in my soul, with the mariners' song. | 11 | ·······/˘˘· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.