The Lid
Where'er he may rove, upon sea or on land,'Neath a fiery sky or a pallid sun,Be he Christian or one of Cythera's band,Opulent Croesus or beggar--'tis one,
Whether citizen, peasant or vagabond he,Be his little brain active or dull. Everywhere,Man feels the terror of mystery,And looks upon high with a glance full of fear.
The Heaven above, that oppressive wall;A ceiling lit up in some lewd music hall,Where the actors step forth on a blood-red soil;
The eremite's hope, and the dread of the sot,The Sky; that black lid of a mighty pot,Where, vast and minute, human Races boil.
Words in this poem
- croesus n.
- A king of Lydia who flourished in the 6th century b. c., and was renowned for his vast wealth; hence, a common appellation for a very rich man; as, he is veritable Croesus.
- lewd a.
- Not clerical; laic; laical; hence, unlearned; simple. [OE.lewed, lewd, lay, ignorant, vile, AS. l laical, belonging to the laity.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Lid 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 Lid, in The Flowers of Evil (1909), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #36098, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/baudelaire-flowers-of-evil/the-lid.html, id L25436.
Form and metre
The Lid is 14 lines in 4 stanzas. The metre is anapaestic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 82%).
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 landA · sunB · bandA · oneB
- 2 -A-A he · everywhereA · mystery · fearA
- 3 AA- wallA · hallA · soil
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'er he may rove, upon sea or on land, | 12 | ˘˘/········· |
| 'Neath a fiery sky or a pallid sun, | 11 | ··/˘˘···/˘· |
| Be he Christian or one of Cythera's band, | 11 | ··/˘······· |
| Opulent Croesus or beggar--'tis one, | 10 | /˘˘/˘·/˘·· |
| Whether citizen, peasant or vagabond he, | 11 | ··/˘/˘·/˘˘· |
| Be his little brain active or dull. Everywhere, | 12 | ··/˘·/˘··/˘· |
| Man feels the terror of mystery, | 9 | ···/˘·/˘˘ |
| And looks upon high with a glance full of fear. | 11 | ··········· |
| The Heaven above, that oppressive wall; | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘· |
| A ceiling lit up in some lewd music hall, | 11 | ·/˘·····/˘· |
| Where the actors step forth on a blood-red soil; | 11 | ··/˘······· |
| The eremite's hope, and the dread of the sot, | 11 | ··········· |
| The Sky; that black lid of a mighty pot, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Where, vast and minute, human Races boil. | 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.