Posthumous Remorse
Ah, when thou shalt slumber, my darkling love,Beneath a black marble-made statuette,And when thou'lt have nought for thy house or alcove,But a cavernous den and a damp oubliette.
When the tomb-stone, oppressing thy timorous breast,And thy hips drooping sweetly with listless decay,The pulse and desires of mine heart shall arrest,And thy feet from pursuing their adventurous way,
Then the grave, that dark friend of my limitless dreams(For the grave ever readeth the poet aright),Amid those long nights, which no slumber redeems
'Twill query--"What use to thee, incomplete sprightThat thou ne'er hast unfathomed the tears of the dead"?--Then the worms will gnaw deep at thy body, like Dread.
Words in this poem
- shalt
- 2d per. sing. of Shall.
- darkling a.
- Becoming dark or gloomy; frowing.
- alcove n.
- A recessed portion of a room, or a small room opening into a larger one; especially, a recess to contain a bed; a lateral recess in a library. [F. alcôve, Sp. or Pg. alcoba, from Ar. al-quobbah arch, vault, tent.]
- cavernous a.
- Full of caverns; resembling a cavern or large cavity; hollow. [L. cavernosus: cf. F. caverneux.]
- listless a.
- Having no desire or inclination; indifferent; heedless; spiritless. [OE. listles, lustles. See Lust.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- limitless a.
- Having no limits; unbounded; boundless. Davies (Wit's Pilgr.).
- aright adv.
- Rightly; correctly; in a right way or form; without mistake or crime; as, to worship God aright. [Pref. a- + right.]
- amid prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
- query n.
- A question; an inquiry to be answered or solved. [L. quaere, imperative sing. of quaerere, quaesitum to seek or search for, to ask, inquire. Cf. Acquire, Conquer, Exquisite, Quest, Require.]
- spright n.
- Spirit; mind; soul; state of mind; mood. [See Sprite.]
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Posthumous Remorse 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, Posthumous Remorse, in The Flowers of Evil (1909), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #36098, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/baudelaire-flowers-of-evil/posthumous-remorse.html, id L25410.
Form and metre
Posthumous Remorse is 14 lines in 4 stanzas. The metre is anapaestic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 82%).
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 -A-A love · statuetteA · alcove · oublietteA
- 2 ABAB breastA · decayB · arrestA · wayB
- 3 A-A dreamsA · aright · redeemsA
- 4 -AA spright · deadA · dreadA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Ah, when thou shalt slumber, my darkling love, | 10 | ····/˘·/˘· |
| Beneath a black marble-made statuette, | 10 | ····/˘··˘/ |
| And when thou'lt have nought for thy house or alcove, | 11 | ·········/· |
| But a cavernous den and a damp oubliette. | 11 | ··/˘˘······ |
| When the tomb-stone, oppressing thy timorous breast, | 12 | ····˘/˘·/˘˘· |
| And thy hips drooping sweetly with listless decay, | 12 | ···/˘/˘·/˘˘/ |
| The pulse and desires of mine heart shall arrest, | 12 | ···˘/˘····˘/ |
| And thy feet from pursuing their adventurous way, | 12 | ····˘/˘·˘/˘· |
| Then the grave, that dark friend of my limitless dreams | 12 | ········/˘˘· |
| (For the grave ever readeth the poet aright), | 12 | ···/˘/˘·/˘˘/ |
| Amid those long nights, which no slumber redeems | 11 | ˘/·····/˘˘/ |
| 'Twill query--"What use to thee, incomplete spright | 11 | ·/˘····˘˘/· |
| That thou ne'er hast unfathomed the tears of the dead"?-- | 12 | ············ |
| Then the worms will gnaw deep at thy body, like Dread. | 12 | ········/˘·· |
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