After Charles Baudelaire
When I behold thee, O my indolent love,To the sound of ringing brazen melodies,Through garish halls harmoniously move,Scattering a scornful light from languid eyes;
When I see, smitten by the blazing lights,Thy pale front, beauteous in its bloodless glowAs the faint fires that deck the Northern nights,And eyes that draw me wheresoe'er I go;
I say, She is fair, too coldly strange for speech;A crown of memories, her calm brow above,Shines; and her heart is like a bruised red peach,Ripe as her body for intelligent love.
Art thou late fruit of spicy savour and scent?A funeral vase awaiting tearful showers?An Eastern odour, waste and oasis blent?A silken cushion or a bank of flowers?
I know there are eyes of melancholy sheenTo which no passionate secrets e'er were given;Shrines where no god or saint has ever been,As deep and empty as the vault of Heaven.
But what care I if this be all pretence?'Twill serve a heart that seeks for truth no more.All one thy folly or indifference,--Hail, lovely mask, thy beauty I adore!
Words in this poem
- indolent a.
- Free from toil, pain, or trouble. [Pref. in- not + L. dolens, -entis, p. pr. of dolere to feel pain: cf. F. indolent. See Dolorous.]
- garish a.
- Showy; dazzling; ostentatious; attracting or exciting attention. [Cf. OE. gauren to stare; of uncertain origin. Cf. gairish.]
- beauteous a.
- Full of beauty; beautiful; very handsome. [Mostly poetic] -- Beau"te*ous*ly, adv. --
- coldly adv.
- In a cold manner; without warmth, animation, or feeling; with indifference; calmly.
- savour v. t.
- To perceive by the smell or the taste; hence, to perceive; to note. B. Jonson.
- tearful a.
- Abounding with tears; weeping; shedding tears; as, tearful eyes.
- odour n.
- Any smell, whether fragrant or offensive; scent; perfume. [OE. odor, odour, OF. odor, odour, F. odeur, fr. L. odor; akin to olere to smell, Gr. Olfactory, Osmium, Ozone, Redolent.]
- oasis n.
- A fertile or green spot in a waste or desert, esp. in a sandy desert.
- blent p. p.
- Blinded. Also (Chaucer), 3d sing. pres. Blindeth.
- sheen v. i.
- To shine; to glisten.
- pretence n.
- The act of laying claim; the claim laid; assumption; pretension. [LL. praetensus, for L. praetentus, p. p. of praetendere. See Pretend, and cf. Tension.]
- adore v. t.
- To worship with profound reverence; to pay divine honors to; to honor as deity or as divine. [OE. aouren, anouren, adoren, OF. aorer, adorer, F. adorer, fr. L. adorare; ad + orare to speak, pray, os, oris, mouth. In OE. confused with honor, the French pr]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
After Charles Baudelaire is in the public domain. This text is taken from Pike County Ballads and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #6062; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Hay, After Charles Baudelaire, in Pike County Ballads and Other Poems (1871), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6062, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hay-pike-county/after-charles-baudelaire.html, id L21642.
Form and metre
After Charles Baudelaire is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 5 of its 6 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%).
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 loveA · melodiesB · moveA · eyesB
- 2 ABAB lightsA · glowB · nightsA · goB
- 3 ABAB speechA · aboveB · peachA · loveB
- 4 ABAB scentA · showersB · blentA · flowersB
- 5 AAAA sheenA · givenA · beenA · heavenA
- 6 ABAB pretenceA · moreB · indifferenceA · adoreB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| When I behold thee, O my indolent love, | 11 | ··˘/···/˘˘· |
| To the sound of ringing brazen melodies, | 11 | ····/˘/˘/˘˘ |
| Through garish halls harmoniously move, | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘˘˘· |
| Scattering a scornful light from languid eyes; | 11 | /˘˘·/˘··/˘· |
| When I see, smitten by the blazing lights, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Thy pale front, beauteous in its bloodless glow | 11 | ···/˘˘··/˘· |
| As the faint fires that deck the Northern nights, | 11 | ···/˘···/˘· |
| And eyes that draw me wheresoe'er I go; | 10 | ·········· |
| I say, She is fair, too coldly strange for speech; | 11 | ······/˘··· |
| A crown of memories, her calm brow above, | 11 | ···/˘˘····· |
| Shines; and her heart is like a bruised red peach, | 11 | ········˘·· |
| Ripe as her body for intelligent love. | 11 | ···/˘·˘/˘˘· |
| Art thou late fruit of spicy savour and scent? | 11 | ·····/˘/˘·· |
| A funeral vase awaiting tearful showers? | 12 | ·/˘˘·˘/˘/˘/˘ |
| An Eastern odour, waste and oasis blent? | 11 | ·/˘/˘··˘/˘· |
| A silken cushion or a bank of flowers? | 11 | ·/˘/˘····/˘ |
| I know there are eyes of melancholy sheen | 11 | ······/˘·˘· |
| To which no passionate secrets e'er were given; | 12 | ···/˘˘/˘··/˘ |
| Shrines where no god or saint has ever been, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| As deep and empty as the vault of Heaven. | 11 | ···/˘····/˘ |
| But what care I if this be all pretence? | 10 | ·········· |
| 'Twill serve a heart that seeks for truth no more. | 10 | ·········· |
| All one thy folly or indifference,-- | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘˘ |
| Hail, lovely mask, thy beauty I adore! | 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.