The Blind Man
A blind man walks without the gate,Wild-staring as an owl by day,Fumbling his flute betimes and late,Along the way.
He pipeth, weary wretch and worn,A roundel shrill and obsolete.The spectre of a dog forlornAttends his feet.
For him the days go lustreless.Invisible life with beat and roarHe heareth like a torrent pressAround, before.
What strange chimeras haunt his headAnd on his mind's bedarkened space,What characters unheard, unread,Doth fancy trace?
Thus down Venetian leads of doom,Wan prisoners ensepulchredIn palpable, undying gloomHave graven their word.
And yet perchance when life's last sparkDeath speeds unto eternal night,The tomb-bred soul, within the dark,Shall see the light.
Words in this poem
- betimes adv.
- In good season or time; before it is late; seasonably; early. [Pref. be- (for by) + time; that is, by the proper time. The -s is an adverbial ending.]
- spectre n.
- Something preternaturally visible; an apparition; a ghost; a phantom. [F. spectre, fr. L. spectrum an appearance, image, specter, fr. specere to look. See Spy, and cf. Spectrum.]
- forlorn a.
- Deserted abandoned; lost. [OE., p.p. of forlesen to lose utterly, AS. forleósan (p.p. forloren); pref. for- + leósan (in comp.) to lose; cf. D. verliezen to lose, G. verlieren, Sw. förlor]
- lustreless a.
- Destitute of luster; dim; dull.
- unheard a.
- Not heard; not perceived by the ear; as, words unheard by those present.
- unread a.
- Not read or perused; as, an unread book. Hooker.
- undying a.
- Not dying; imperishable; unending; immortal; as, the undying souls of men.
- graven p. p.
- Carved. Graven image, an idol; an object of worship carved from wood, stone, etc.
- 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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Blind Man is in the public domain. This text is taken from Enamels and Cameos and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #29521, the Agnes Lee translation; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Théophile Gautier, The Blind Man, in Enamels and Cameos and Other Poems (1903), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #29521, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/gautier-enamels-cameos/the-blind-man.html, id L27010.
Form and metre
The Blind Man is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
See other poems in iambic 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 gateA · dayB · lateA · wayB
- 2 ABAB wornA · obsoleteB · forlornA · feetB
- 3 ABAB lustrelessA · roarB · pressA · beforeB
- 4 ABAB headA · spaceB · unreadA · traceB
- 5 ABAB doomA · ensepulchredB · gloomA · wordB
- 6 ABAB sparkA · nightB · darkA · lightB
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| A blind man walks without the gate, | 8 | ········ |
| Wild-staring as an owl by day, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Fumbling his flute betimes and late, | 8 | /˘······ |
| Along the way. | 4 | ˘/·· |
| He pipeth, weary wretch and worn, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| A roundel shrill and obsolete. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The spectre of a dog forlorn | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| Attends his feet. | 4 | ˘/·· |
| For him the days go lustreless. | 8 | ········ |
| Invisible life with beat and roar | 8 | ˘/˘····· |
| He heareth like a torrent press | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Around, before. | 4 | ···· |
| What strange chimeras haunt his head | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| And on his mind's bedarkened space, | 8 | ········ |
| What characters unheard, unread, | 8 | ·/˘˘˘/˘/ |
| Doth fancy trace? | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Thus down Venetian leads of doom, | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| Wan prisoners ensepulchred | 8 | ·/˘˘···˘ |
| In palpable, undying gloom | 8 | ·/˘˘˘/˘· |
| Have graven their word. | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| And yet perchance when life's last spark | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| Death speeds unto eternal night, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| The tomb-bred soul, within the dark, | 8 | ········ |
| Shall see the light. | 4 | ···· |
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.