The Joyous Defunct
Where snails abound--in a juicy soil,I will dig for myself a fathomless grave,Where at leisure mine ancient bones I can coil,And sleep--quite forgotten--like a shark 'neath the wave.
I hate every tomb--I abominate wills,And rather than tears from the world to implore,I would ask of the crows with their vampire billsTo devour every bit of my carcass impure.
Oh worms, without eyes, without ears, black friends!To you a defunct-one, rejoicing, descends,Enlivened Philosophers--offspring of Dung!
Without any qualms, o'er my wreckage spread,And tell if some torment there still can be wrungFor this soul-less old frame that is dead 'midst the dead!
Words in this poem
- fathomless a.
- Incapable of being fathomed; immeasurable; that can not be sounded.
- abominate v. t.
- To turn from as ill-omened; to hate in the highest degree, as if with religious dread; loathe; as, to abominate all impiety. [L. abominatus, p. p. or abominari to deprecate as ominous, to abhor, to curse; ab + omen a foreboding. See Omen.]
- carcass n.
- A dead body, whether of man or beast; a corpse; now commonly the dead body of a beast. [F. carcasse, fr. It. carcassa, fr. L. caro flesh + capsa chest, box, case. Cf. Carnal, Case a sheath.]
- wreckage n.
- The act of wrecking, or state of being wrecked.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Joyous Defunct 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 Joyous Defunct, in The Flowers of Evil (1909), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #36098, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/baudelaire-flowers-of-evil/the-joyous-defunct.html, id L25431.
Form and metre
The Joyous Defunct is 14 lines in 4 stanzas. The metre is anapaestic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%).
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 soilA · graveB · coilA · waveB
- 2 A-A- willsA · implore · billsA · impure
- 3 AA- friendsA · descendsA · dung
- 4 A-A spreadA · wrung · deadA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Where snails abound--in a juicy soil, | 9 | ··˘/··/˘· |
| I will dig for myself a fathomless grave, | 11 | ·····/·/˘˘· |
| Where at leisure mine ancient bones I can coil, | 11 | ··/˘·/˘···· |
| And sleep--quite forgotten--like a shark 'neath the wave. | 12 | ···˘/˘······ |
| I hate every tomb--I abominate wills, | 11 | ··/˘··˘/˘˘· |
| And rather than tears from the world to implore, | 11 | ·/˘······˘/ |
| I would ask of the crows with their vampire bills | 11 | ········/˘· |
| To devour every bit of my carcass impure. | 12 | ·˘//˘···/˘˘/ |
| Oh worms, without eyes, without ears, black friends! | 10 | ·········· |
| To you a defunct-one, rejoicing, descends, | 11 | ···˘/·˘/˘˘/ |
| Enlivened Philosophers--offspring of Dung! | 11 | ˘/˘˘/˘˘/··· |
| Without any qualms, o'er my wreckage spread, | 10 | ··/˘···/˘· |
| And tell if some torment there still can be wrung | 11 | ····/······ |
| For this soul-less old frame that is dead 'midst the dead! | 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.