The Ransom
Charles Baudelaire 1821 (Paris) – 1867 (Paris)
Man, with which to pay his ransom,
has two fields of deep rich earth,
which he must dig and bring to birth,
with the iron blade of reason.
To obtain the smallest rose,
to garner a few ears of wheat,
he must wet them without cease,
with briny tears from his grey brow.
One is Art: Love is the other.
- To render his propitiation,
on the day of conflagration,
when the last strict reckoning’s here,
full of crops’ and flowers’ displays
he will have to show his barns,
with those colours and those forms
that gain the Angels’ praise.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 30 sec read
- 108 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABBCDEFGHCCIJKLJ |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 531 |
Words | 102 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 16 |
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"The Ransom" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/5030/the-ransom>.
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