Analysis of The Sunset of Romanticism

Charles Baudelaire 1821 (Paris) – 1867 (Paris)



How beautiful a new sun is when it rises,
flashing out its greeting, like an explosion!
- Happy, whoever hails with sweet emotion
its descent, nobler than a dream, to our eyes!
I remember! I’ve seen all, flower, furrow, fountain,
swoon beneath its look, like a throbbing heart…
- Let’s run quickly, it’s late, towards the horizon,
to catch at least one slanting ray as it departs!
But I pursue the vanishing God in vain:
irresistible Night establishes its sway,
full of shudders, black, dismal, cold:
an odour of the tomb floats in the shadow,
at the swamp’s edge, feet faltering I go,
bruising damp slugs, and unexpected toads.


Scheme ABBCBDBEFGHIIJ
Poetic Form
Metre 110001111110 10111011010 10010111010 101101011101 1010111101010 1011110101 111011010010 111111011101 11010100101 01001010011 11101101 111011001 1011110011 101100101
Closest metre Iambic hexameter
Characters 633
Words 111
Sentences 6
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 35
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 485
Words per stanza (avg) 109
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 16, 2023

33 sec read
296

Charles Baudelaire

Charles Pierre Baudelaire was a French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist, art critic, and pioneering translator of Edgar Allan Poe. more…

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