Analysis of Femmes Damnées
Charles Baudelaire 1821 (Paris) – 1867 (Paris)
Like pensive cattle, lying on the sands,
they turn their eyes towards the sea’s far hills,
and, feet searching each other’s, touching hands,
know sweet languor and the bitterest thrills.
Some, where the stream babbles, deep in the woods,
their hearts enamoured of long intimacies,
go spelling out the loves of their own girlhoods,
and carving the green bark of young trees.
Others, like Sisters, walk, gravely and slow,
among the rocks, full of apparitions,
where Saint Anthony saw, like lava flows,
the bared crimson breasts of his temptations.
There are those, in the melting candle’s glimmer,
who in mute hollows of caves still pagan,
call on you to relieve their groaning fever,
O Bacchus, to soothe the remorse of the ancients!
And others, whose throats love scapularies,
who, hiding whips under their long vestment,
in the sombre groves of the night, solitaries,
blend the sweats of joy with the tears of torment.
O virgins, o demons, o monsters, o martyrs,
great spirits, despisers of reality,
now full of cries, now full of tears,
pious and lustful, seeking infinity,
you, whom my soul has pursued to your hell,
poor sisters, I adore you as much as I weep,
for your dismal sufferings, thirsts that swell,
and the vessels of love, where your great hearts steep!
Scheme | ABABCAADEFGFHIHJAKAKLKMKNONO |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101010101 1111010111 0110110101 111001001 110111001 111111 1101011111 010011111 1011011001 010111010 1110011101 0110111010 11100101010 1011011110 11110111010 110110011010 0101111 110110111 00111011 1011110111 110110110110 1101110 11111111 10010100100 1111101111 110101111111 1110100111 00101111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,255 |
Words | 217 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 28 |
Lines Amount | 28 |
Letters per line (avg) | 36 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 998 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 215 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 21, 2023
- 1:05 min read
- 121 Views
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"Femmes Damnées" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 6 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/4922/femmes-damn%C3%A9es>.
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