The Death of the Lovers
We will have beds which exhale odours soft,We will have divans profound as the tomb,And delicate plants on the ledges aloft,Which under the bluest of skies for us bloom.
Exhausting our hearts to their last desires,They both shall be like unto two glowing coals,Reflecting the twofold light of their firesAcross the twin mirrors of our two souls.
One evening of mystical azure skies,We'll exchange but one single lightning flash,Just like a long sob--replete with good byes.
And later an angel shall joyously passThrough the half-open doors, to replenish and washThe torches expired, and the tarnished glass.
Words in this poem
- 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,]
- replete a.
- Filled again; completely filled; full; charged; abounding. [L. repletus, p. p. of replere to fill again, fill up; pref. re- re- + plere to fill, akin to plenus full: cf. F. replet corpulent. See Plenty, Replenish.]
- replenish v. i.
- To recover former fullness.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Death of the Lovers 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 Death of the Lovers, in The Flowers of Evil (1909), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #36098, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/baudelaire-flowers-of-evil/the-death-of-the-lovers.html, id L25445.
Form and metre
The Death of the Lovers is 14 lines in 4 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 2 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is anapaestic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 79%).
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 ABAB softA · tombB · aloftA · bloomB
- 2 ABAB desiresA · coalsB · firesA · soulsB
- 3 A-A skiesA · flash · byesA
- 4 A-A passA · wash · glassA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| We will have beds which exhale odours soft, | 10 | ·····˘//˘· |
| We will have divans profound as the tomb, | 10 | ···˘/˘/··· |
| And delicate plants on the ledges aloft, | 10 | ·/˘···/˘˘/ |
| Which under the bluest of skies for us bloom. | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| Exhausting our hearts to their last desires, | 11 | ˘/˘/····˘/˘ |
| They both shall be like unto two glowing coals, | 11 | ········/˘· |
| Reflecting the twofold light of their fires | 11 | ˘/˘·//···/˘ |
| Across the twin mirrors of our two souls. | 10 | ˘/··/˘·/·· |
| One evening of mystical azure skies, | 10 | ·/˘·/˘˘/˘· |
| We'll exchange but one single lightning flash, | 10 | ·˘/··/˘/˘· |
| Just like a long sob--replete with good byes. | 10 | ·····˘/··· |
| And later an angel shall joyously pass | 10 | ·/˘·/˘···· |
| Through the half-open doors, to replenish and wash | 12 | ···/˘··˘/˘·· |
| The torches expired, and the tarnished glass. | 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.