The Broken Bell
How sweet and bitter, on a winter night,Beside the palpitating fire to list,As, slowly, distant memories alight,To sounds of chimes that sing across the mist.
Oh, happy is that bell with hearty throat,Which neither age nor time can e'er defeat,Which faithfully uplifts its pious note,Like an agèd soldier on his beat.
For me, my soul is cracked, and 'mid her cares,Would often fill with her songs the midnight airsAnd oft it chances that her feeble moan
Is like the wounded warrior's fainting groan,Who by a lake of blood, 'neath bodies slain,In anguish falls, and never moves again.
Words in this poem
- defeat v. t.
- To undo; to disfigure; to destroy. [From F. défait, OF. desfait, p. p. ofe défaire, OF. desfaire, to undo; L. dis- + facere to do. See Feat, Fact, and cf. Disfashion.]
- cracked a.
- Coarsely ground or broken; as, cracked wheat.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Broken Bell 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, The Broken Bell, in The Flowers of Evil (1909), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #36098, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/baudelaire-flowers-of-evil/the-broken-bell.html, id L25432.
Form and metre
The Broken Bell is 14 lines in 4 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 2 of its 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 ABAB nightA · listB · alightA · mistB
- 2 ABAB throatA · defeatB · noteA · beatB
- 3 AA- caresA · airsA · moan
- 4 -AA groan · slainA · againA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| How sweet and bitter, on a winter night, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Beside the palpitating fire to list, | 10 | ˘/·/˘˘˘/·· |
| As, slowly, distant memories alight, | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘˘˘/ |
| To sounds of chimes that sing across the mist. | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| Oh, happy is that bell with hearty throat, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Which neither age nor time can e'er defeat, | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| Which faithfully uplifts its pious note, | 10 | ·/˘˘/˘·/˘· |
| Like an agèd soldier on his beat. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| For me, my soul is cracked, and 'mid her cares, | 10 | ·········· |
| Would often fill with her songs the midnight airs | 11 | ·/˘·····/·· |
| And oft it chances that her feeble moan | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Is like the wounded warrior's fainting groan, | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘· |
| Who by a lake of blood, 'neath bodies slain, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| In anguish falls, and never moves again. | 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.