The Ideal
It could ne'er be those beauties of ivory vignettes;The varied display of a worthless age,Nor puppet-like figures with castonets,That ever an heart like mine could engage.
I leave to Gavarni, that poet of chlorosis,His hospital-beauties in troups that whirl,For I cannot discover amid his pale rosesA flower to resemble my scarlet ideal.
Since, what for this fathomless heart I requireIs--Lady Macbeth you! in crime so dire;--An Æschylus dream transposed from the South--
Or thee, oh great "Night" of Michael-Angelo born,Who so calmly thy limbs in strange posture hath drawn,Whose allurements are framed for a Titan's mouth.
Words in this poem
- chlorosis n.
- The green sickness; an anæmic disease of young women, characterized by a greenish or grayish yellow hue of the skin, weakness, palpitation, etc. [NL., fr. Gr. chlorose.]
- discover v. i.
- To discover or show one's self.
- 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]
- fathomless a.
- Incapable of being fathomed; immeasurable; that can not be sounded.
- dire a.
- Ill-boding; portentous; as, dire omens. [L. dirus; of uncertain origin.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Ideal 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 Ideal, in The Flowers of Evil (1909), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #36098, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/baudelaire-flowers-of-evil/the-ideal.html, id L25404.
Form and metre
The Ideal is 14 lines in 4 stanzas. The metre is anapaestic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%).
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 vignettesA · ageB · castonetsA · engageB
- 3 AA- requireA · direA · south
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 |
|---|---|---|
| It could ne'er be those beauties of ivory vignettes; | 13 | ·····/˘·/˘˘˘/ |
| The varied display of a worthless age, | 10 | ·/˘˘/··/˘· |
| Nor puppet-like figures with castonets, | 10 | ·/˘·/˘···· |
| That ever an heart like mine could engage. | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| I leave to Gavarni, that poet of chlorosis, | 13 | ·······/˘·˘/˘ |
| His hospital-beauties in troups that whirl, | 10 | ·/·˘/˘···· |
| For I cannot discover amid his pale roses | 13 | ··/˘˘/˘˘/··/˘ |
| A flower to resemble my scarlet ideal. | 12 | ·/˘·˘/˘·/˘˘/ |
| Since, what for this fathomless heart I require | 12 | ····/˘˘···/˘ |
| Is--Lady Macbeth you! in crime so dire; | 10 | ·/˘˘/····· |
| --An Æschylus dream transposed from the South-- | 9 | ····˘/··· |
| Or thee, oh great "Night" of Michael-Angelo born, | 12 | ······/˘/˘·· |
| Who so calmly thy limbs in strange posture hath drawn, | 12 | ··/˘····/˘·· |
| Whose allurements are framed for a Titan's mouth. | 12 | ·········/˘· |
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.