Analysis of A Martyr
Charles Baudelaire 1821 (Paris) – 1867 (Paris)
Surrounded by flasks, and by spangled lames,
All matter of sumptuous goods,
Marble sculptures, fine paintings, and perfumed peignoirs
That trail in voluptuous folds,
In a room like a greenhouse, both stuffy and warm,
An atmosphere heavy with death,
Where arrangements of flowers encoffined in glass
Exhale their ultimate breath,
A headless cadaver spills out like a stream
On a pillow adorning the bed,
A flow of red blood, which the linen drinks up
With a thirsty meadow's greed.
Like pale apprehensions born in the dark,
And that enchain the eyes,
The head - the pile of its ebony mane
With precious jewels entwined
On the night table, like a ranunculus
Reposes; and a gaze,
Mindless and vague and as black as the dusk
Escapes from the pallid face.
On the bed the nude torso displays without shame
And most lasciviously,
The secret magnificence, fatal allure,
Of its nature's artistry;
On the leg, a pink stocking adorned with gold clocks
Remains like a souvenir;
The garter, a diamond-blazing eye,
Hurls a glance that is cold and severe.
The singular aspect of this solitude,
Like the portrait hung above
With eyes as enticing as languorous pose,
Reveals an unspeakable love,
Perverse entertainments and culpable joys
Full of devilish intimacies,
Which would make the dark angels swarm with delight
In the folds of the draperies;
And yet, to notice the elegant lines
Of the shoulder lean and lithe,
The haunch a bit pointed, the turn of the waist,
Like a snake aroused to strike,
She is still in her youth! Did her sickness of soul
And her senses gnawed by ennui
Open to her that depraved pack of lusts
And encourage them willingly?
That intractable man whom alive you could not,
Despite so much love, satisfy,
Did he there, on your still and amenable corpse,
His appetite gratify?
Tell me, cadaver! and by your stiff hair
Raising with feverous hand,
Terrible head, did he paste on your teeth
His kisses again and again?
Far away from the world, from the taunts of the mob,
Far from the prying police,
Strange creature, within your mysterious tomb
I bid you to sleep in peace.
Your bridegroom may roam, but the image of you
Stands by him wherever he rests;
As much as you, doubtless, the man will be true,
And faithful even till death.
Scheme | AAAA XBAB XXXX XAXX AAXA XCXD AEFE XGAG AAXA AXXX CDAC XFAF XXXX XAXA HAHB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (47%) |
Metre | 0101101101 1101101 10101100011 11001001 00110111001 1101011 1010110101 0111001 01001011101 101001001 01111101011 101011 110101001 01101 0101111001 1101001 10110101 1001 1001011101 0110101 10101101011 011 01011001 1110100 101011001111 011001 010010101 101111001 010011110 1010101 111010111 01101001 0101001001 11101 11101101101 00110100 0111001001 1010101 01011001101 1010111 111001101011 001011010 1010101111 00101100 101001101111 0111110 111111001001 11010 1101001111 10111 1001111111 11001001 101101101101 1101001 11001101001 1111101 1111101011 11101011 11111001111 0101011 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 2,221 |
Words | 404 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 15 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 60 |
Letters per line (avg) | 30 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 119 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 26 |
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Submitted on August 03, 2020
Modified on March 26, 2023
- 2:01 min read
- 30 Views
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"A Martyr" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/54863/a-martyr>.
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