Semper Eadem
"From whence it comes, you ask, this gloom acute,Like waves that o'er the rocky headland fall?"--When once our hearts have gathered in their fruit,To live is a curse! a secret known to all,
A grief, quite simple, nought mysterious,And like your joy--for all, both loud and shrill,Nay cease to clamour, be not e'er so curious!And yet although your voice is sweet, be still!
Be still, O soul, with rapture ever rife!O mouth, with the childish smile! Far more than Life,The subtle bonds of Death around us twine.
Let--let my heart, the wine of falsehood drink,And dream-like, deep within your fair eyes sink,And in the shade of thy lashes long recline!
Words in this poem
- clamour n.
- A great outcry or vociferation; loud and continued shouting or exclamation. [OF. clamour, clamur, F. clameur, fr. L. clamor, fr. clamare to cry out. See Claim.]
- curious a.
- Difficult to please or satisfy; solicitous to be correct; careful; scrupulous; nice; exact. [OF. curios, curius, F. curieux, L. curiosus careful, inquisitive, fr. cura care. See Cure.]
- rife a.
- Prevailing; prevalent; abounding. [AS. rif abundant, or Icel. rifr munificent; akin to OD. riff, rijve, abundant.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Semper Eadem 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, Semper Eadem, in The Flowers of Evil (1909), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #36098, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/baudelaire-flowers-of-evil/semper-eadem.html, id L25413.
Form and metre
Semper Eadem is 14 lines in 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 acuteA · fallB · fruitA · allB
- 2 -A-A mysterious · shrillA · curious · stillA
- 3 AA- rifeA · lifeA · twine
- 4 AA- drinkA · sinkA · recline
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 iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| "From whence it comes, you ask, this gloom acute, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Like waves that o'er the rocky headland fall?" | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| --When once our hearts have gathered in their fruit, | 10 | ··/··/˘··· |
| To live is a curse! a secret known to all, | 11 | ······/˘··· |
| A grief, quite simple, nought mysterious, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘˘ |
| And like your joy--for all, both loud and shrill, | 10 | ·········· |
| Nay cease to clamour, be not e'er so curious! | 11 | ···/˘····/˘ |
| And yet although your voice is sweet, be still! | 10 | ·········· |
| Be still, O soul, with rapture ever rife! | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| O mouth, with the childish smile! Far more than Life, | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| The subtle bonds of Death around us twine. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Let--let my heart, the wine of falsehood drink, | 10 | ·······/·· |
| And dream-like, deep within your fair eyes sink, | 10 | ·········· |
| And in the shade of thy lashes long recline! | 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.