Analysis of My Earlier Life
Charles Baudelaire 1821 (Paris) – 1867 (Paris)
I've been home a long time among the vast porticos,
Which the mariner sun has tinged with a million fires,
Whose grandest pillars, upright, majestic and cold
Render them the same, this evening, as caves with basalt spires.
The swells' overwhelming accords of rich music,
Heaving images of heaven to the skies,
Mingle in a way solemn and mystic
With the colors of the horizon reflected by my eyes.
It was here I was true to the voluptuous calm,
The milieu of azure, the waves, the splendors,
And the nude slaves, all impregnated with odors,
Who refreshed my brow with waving palms
My only care to bring to meaning from anguish
The sad secret in which I languish.
Translated by William A. Sigler
Submitted by Ryan McGuire
Scheme | AAXA BABA XAA ACC X X |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11101101011 10100111101010 110100101001 10101110111011 01010011110 10100110101 1000110010 101010010010111 1111111001001 0011100101 00111010110 101111101 110111110110 011001110 0101100100 01011001 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 712 |
Words | 129 |
Sentences | 5 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 3, 3, 1, 1 |
Lines Amount | 16 |
Letters per line (avg) | 36 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 96 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 21 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 39 sec read
- 46 Views
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"My Earlier Life" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/4988/my-earlier-life>.
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