The Living Torch
They stand before me now, those eyes that shine,No doubt inspired by an Angel wise;They stand, those God-like brothers that are mine,And pour their diamond fires in mine eyes.
From all transgressions, from all snares, they save,Towards the Path of Joy they guide my ways;They are my servants, and I am their slave;And all my soul, this living torch obeys.
Ye charming Eyes--ye have those mystic beams,Of candles, burning in full day; the sunAwakes, yet kills not their fantastic gleams:
Ye sing the Awak'ning, they the dark oblivion;The Awak'ning of my spirit ye proclaim,O stars--no sun can ever kill your flame!
Words in this poem
- oblivion n.
- The act of forgetting, or the state of being forgotten; cessation of remembrance; forgetfulness. [L. oblivio, akin to oblivisci to forget: cf. OF. oblivion.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Living Torch 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 Living Torch, in The Flowers of Evil (1909), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #36098, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/baudelaire-flowers-of-evil/the-living-torch.html, id L25416.
Form and metre
The Living Torch 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 shineA · wiseB · mineA · eyesB
- 2 ABAB saveA · waysB · slaveA · obeysB
- 3 A-A beamsA · sun · gleamsA
- 4 -AA oblivion · proclaimA · flameA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| They stand before me now, those eyes that shine, | 10 | ·········· |
| No doubt inspired by an Angel wise; | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| They stand, those God-like brothers that are mine, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And pour their diamond fires in mine eyes. | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| From all transgressions, from all snares, they save, | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| Towards the Path of Joy they guide my ways; | 10 | ·········· |
| They are my servants, and I am their slave; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And all my soul, this living torch obeys. | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| Ye charming Eyes--ye have those mystic beams, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Of candles, burning in full day; the sun | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Awakes, yet kills not their fantastic gleams: | 10 | ˘/····˘/˘· |
| Ye sing the Awak'ning, they the dark oblivion; | 12 | ·········˘/˘ |
| The Awak'ning of my spirit ye proclaim, | 10 | ······/·˘/ |
| O stars--no sun can ever kill your flame! | 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.