Obsession
Great forests, you alarm me like a mighty fane;Like organ-tones you roar, and in our hearts of stone,Where ancient sobs vibrate, O halls of endless pain!The answering echoes of your "De Profundis" moan.
I hate thee, Ocean! hate thy tumults and thy throbs,My spirit finds them in himself. This bitter gleeOf vanquished mortals, full of insults and of sobs,I hear it in the mighteous laughter of the sea.
O starless night! thy loveliness my soul inhales,Without those starry rays which speak a language known,For I desire the dark, the naked and the lone.
But e'en those darknesses themselves to me are veils,Where live--and, by the millions 'neath my eyelids prance,Long, long departed Beings with familiar glance.
Words in this poem
- fane n.
- A temple; a place consecrated to religion; a church. [L. fanum a place dedicated to some deity, a sanctuary, fr. fari to speak. See Fame.]
- glee n.
- Music; minstrelsy; entertainment.
- starless a.
- Being without stars; having no stars visible; as, a starless night.
- loveliness n.
- The state or quality of being lovely. [From Lovely.]
- starry a.
- Abounding with stars; adorned with stars.
- lone n.
- A lane. See Loanin.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Obsession 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, Obsession, in The Flowers of Evil (1909), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #36098, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/baudelaire-flowers-of-evil/obsession.html, id L25434.
Form and metre
Obsession is 14 lines in 4 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 2 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is alexandrines, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
See other poems in alexandrines.
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 ABAB faneA · stoneB · painA · moanB
- 2 ABAB throbsA · gleeB · sobsA · seaB
- 3 -AA inhales · knownA · loneA
- 4 -AA veils · pranceA · glanceA
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 alexandrines. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Great forests, you alarm me like a mighty fane; | 12 | ·/˘·˘/···/˘· |
| Like organ-tones you roar, and in our hearts of stone, | 12 | ·/˘·····/··· |
| Where ancient sobs vibrate, O halls of endless pain! | 12 | ·/˘·/˘···/˘· |
| The answering echoes of your "De Profundis" moan. | 12 | ·/˘/˘······· |
| I hate thee, Ocean! hate thy tumults and thy throbs, | 12 | ···/˘··/˘··· |
| My spirit finds them in himself. This bitter glee | 12 | ·/˘···˘/·/˘· |
| Of vanquished mortals, full of insults and of sobs, | 12 | ·/˘/˘··/···· |
| I hear it in the mighteous laughter of the sea. | 12 | ·······/˘··· |
| O starless night! thy loveliness my soul inhales, | 12 | ·/˘··/˘˘··˘/ |
| Without those starry rays which speak a language known, | 12 | ···/˘····/˘· |
| For I desire the dark, the naked and the lone. | 12 | ··˘/···/˘··· |
| But e'en those darknesses themselves to me are veils, | 12 | ···/˘˘˘/···· |
| Where live--and, by the millions 'neath my eyelids prance, | 12 | ·····/˘··/·· |
| Long, long departed Beings with familiar glance. | 12 | ··˘/˘/˘·˘/˘· |
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.