Spleen
The rainy moon of all the world is weary,And from its urn a gloomy cold pours down,Upon the pallid inmates of the mortuary,And on the neighbouring outskirts of the town.
My wasted cat, in searching for a litter,Bestirs its mangy paws from post to post;(A poet's soul that wanders in the gutter,With the jaded voice of a shiv'ring ghost).
The smoking pine-log, while the drone laments,Accompanies the wheezy pendulum,The while amidst a haze of dirty scents,
--Those fatal remnants of a sick man's room--The gallant knave of hearts and queen of spadesRelate their ancient amorous escapades.
Words in this poem
- neighbouring a.
- Living or being near; adjacent; as, the neighboring nations or countries.
- ghost n.
- The spirit; the soul of man. [OE. gast, gost, soul, spirit, AS. gast breath, spirit, soul; akin to OS. g spirit, soul, D. geest, G. geist, and prob. to E. gaze, ghastly.]
- wheezy a.
- Breathing with difficulty and with a wheeze; wheezing. Used also figuratively.
- amidst 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]
- knave n.
- A boy; especially, a boy servant. Wyclif. [OE., boy, servant, knave, AS. cnafa boy, youth; cf. AS. cnapa boy, youth, D. kna, G. knabe boy, knappe esquire, Icel. knapi, Sw. knape esquire, knäfvel knave.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Spleen 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, Spleen, in The Flowers of Evil (1909), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #36098, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/baudelaire-flowers-of-evil/spleen.html, id L25433.
Form and metre
Spleen is 14 lines in 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
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 -A-A weary · downA · mortuary · townA
- 2 -A-A litter · postA · gutter · ghostA
- 3 A-A lamentsA · pendulum · scentsA
- 4 -AA room · spadesA · escapadesA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The rainy moon of all the world is weary, | 11 | ·/˘······/˘ |
| And from its urn a gloomy cold pours down, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Upon the pallid inmates of the mortuary, | 13 | ···/˘/···/˘·˘ |
| And on the neighbouring outskirts of the town. | 10 | ···/˘˘/··· |
| My wasted cat, in searching for a litter, | 11 | ·/˘··/˘··/˘ |
| Bestirs its mangy paws from post to post; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| (A poet's soul that wanders in the gutter, | 11 | ·/˘··/˘··/˘ |
| With the jaded voice of a shiv'ring ghost). | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| The smoking pine-log, while the drone laments, | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| Accompanies the wheezy pendulum, | 10 | ˘/˘˘·/˘/˘˘ |
| The while amidst a haze of dirty scents, | 10 | ··˘/···/˘· |
| --Those fatal remnants of a sick man's room-- | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| The gallant knave of hearts and queen of spades | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Relate their ancient amorous escapades. | 10 | ˘/·/˘/˘/˘· |
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.