To a Passer-by
Around me thundered the deafening noise of the street,In mourning apparel, portraying majestic distress,With queenly fingers, just lifting the hem of her dress,A stately woman passed by with hurrying feet.
Agile and noble, with limbs of perfect poise,Ah, how I drank, thrilled through like a Being insane,In her look, a dark sky, from whence springs forth the hurricane,There lay but the sweetness that charms, and the joy that destroys.
A flash--then the night.... O loveliness fugitive!Whose glance has so suddenly caused me again to live,Shall I not see you again till this life is o'er!
Elsewhere, far away ... too late, perhaps never more,For I know not whither you fly, nor you, where I go,O soul that I would have loved, and that you know!
Words in this poem
- deafening n.
- The act or process of rendering impervious to sound, as a floor or wall; also, the material with which the spaces are filled in this process; pugging.
- queenly a.
- Like, becoming, or suitable to, a queen. [AS. cwenlic feminine.]
- drank n.
- Wild oats, or darnel grass. See Drake a plant. [Cf. 3d Drake.]
- loveliness n.
- The state or quality of being lovely. [From Lovely.]
- 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,]
- whither adv.
- To what place; -- used interrogatively; as, whither goest thou [OE. whider. AS. hwider; akin to E. where, who; cf. Goth. hvadre whither. See Who, and cf. Hither, Thither.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To a Passer-by 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, To a Passer-by, in The Flowers of Evil (1909), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #36098, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/baudelaire-flowers-of-evil/to-a-passer-by.html, id L25440.
Form and metre
To a Passer-by is 14 lines in 4 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is ABBA, complete in 2 of its 4 stanzas.
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 ABBA streetA · distressB · dressB · feetA
- 2 ABBA poiseA · insaneB · hurricaneB · destroysA
- 3 AA- fugitiveA · liveA · o'er
- 4 -AA more · goA · knowA
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Around me thundered the deafening noise of the street, | 13 | ···/˘·/˘˘···· |
| In mourning apparel, portraying majestic distress, | 14 | ·/˘˘/˘˘/˘˘/˘˘/ |
| With queenly fingers, just lifting the hem of her dress, | 13 | ·/˘/˘·/˘····· |
| A stately woman passed by with hurrying feet. | 12 | ·/˘/˘···/˘˘· |
| Agile and noble, with limbs of perfect poise, | 11 | /˘·/˘···˘/· |
| Ah, how I drank, thrilled through like a Being insane, | 12 | ········/˘˘/ |
| In her look, a dark sky, from whence springs forth the hurricane, | 14 | ···········/˘· |
| There lay but the sweetness that charms, and the joy that destroys. | 14 | ····/˘······˘/ |
| A flash--then the night.... O loveliness fugitive! | 12 | ······/˘˘/˘˘ |
| Whose glance has so suddenly caused me again to live, | 13 | ····/˘˘··˘/·· |
| Shall I not see you again till this life is o'er! | 12 | ·····˘/····· |
| Elsewhere, far away ... too late, perhaps never more, | 12 | /··˘/··˘//˘· |
| For I know not whither you fly, nor you, where I go, | 13 | ····/˘······· |
| O soul that I would have loved, and that you know! | 11 | ··········· |
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.