The Bad Monk
Charles Baudelaire 1821 (Paris) – 1867 (Paris)
On the great walls of ancient cloisters were nailed
Murals displaying Truth the saint,
Whose effect, reheating the pious entrails
Brought to an austere chill a warming paint.
In the times when Christ was seeded around,
More than one illustrious monk, today unknown
Took for a studio the funeral grounds
And glorified Death as the one way shown.
—My soul is a tomb, an empty confine
Since eternity I scour and I reside;
Nothing hangs on the walls of this hideous sty.
O lazy monk! When will I see
The living spectacle of my misery,
The work of my hands and the love of my eyes?
Translated by William A. Sigler
Submitted by Ryan McGuire
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 24, 2023
- 35 sec read
- 126 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | XAXA XBXB XXX CCX X X |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 629 |
Words | 117 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 3, 3, 1, 1 |
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"The Bad Monk" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/5009/the-bad-monk>.
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