Analysis of Be Drunk
Charles Baudelaire 1821 (Paris) – 1867 (Paris)
You have to be always drunk. That's all there is to it--it's the
only way. So as not to feel the horrible burden of time that breaks
your back and bends you to the earth, you have to be continually
drunk.
But on what?Wine, poetry or virtue, as you wish. But be
drunk.
And if sometimes, on the steps of a palace or the green grass of
a ditch, in the mournful solitude of your room, you wake again,
drunkenness already diminishing or gone, ask the wind, the wave,
the star, the bird, the clock, everything that is flying, everything
that is groaning, everything that is rolling, everything that is
singing, everything that is speaking. . .ask what time it is and
wind, wave, star, bird, clock will answer you:"It is time to be
drunk! So as not to be the martyred slaves of time, be drunk, be
continually drunk! On wine, on poetry or on virtue as you wish."
Scheme | abcDcDefghijcck |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11111111111110 101111110100101111 11011101111101000 1 11110011011111 1 0101101101010111 010010101111101 10001001001110101 01010110111010 11101011101011 10101110111110 1111111011111 111111010111111 0100011111001110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic heptameter |
Characters | 861 |
Words | 164 |
Sentences | 13 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 15 |
Lines Amount | 15 |
Letters per line (avg) | 43 |
Words per line (avg) | 11 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 652 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 160 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 29, 2023
- 49 sec read
- 381 Views
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"Be Drunk" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/4896/be-drunk>.
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