The Little Old Women Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCDE FGHI JKLM KKKN KKOK PQRS TUVW X Y KKKZ KXXK KA2KA2 XB2QK C2D2KE2 KKVK KF2 G2 A2 LH2KE2 KI2KK KKKX KJ2K2L2 M2KKV KN2KO2for Victor Hugo | A |
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I | - |
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In sinuous coils of the old capitals | B |
Where even horror weaves a magic spell | C |
Gripped by my fatal humours I observe | D |
Singular beings with appalling charms | E |
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These dislocated wrecks were women once | F |
Were Eponine or Lais hunchbacked freaks | G |
Though broken let us love them they are souls | H |
Under cold rags their shredded petticoats | I |
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They creep lashed by the merciless north wind | J |
Quake from the riot of an omnibus | K |
Clasp by their sides like relics of a saint | L |
Embroidered bags of flowery design | M |
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They toddle every bit like marionettes | K |
Or drag themselves like wounded animals | K |
Or dance against their will poor little bells | K |
That a remorseless demon rings Worn out | N |
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They are yet they have eyes piercing like drills | K |
Shining like pot holes where the water sleeps | K |
Heavenly eyes as of a little girl | O |
Who laughs with joy at anything that shines | K |
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Have you observed that coffins of the old | P |
Are nearly small enough to fit a child | Q |
Death in this similarity sets up | R |
An eerie symbol with a strange appeal | S |
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And when I glimpse some feeble phantom there | T |
Part of the swarming tableau of the town | U |
It always seems to me this fragile soul | V |
Is moving gently to her cradle bed | W |
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Unless geometry occurs to me | X |
In shapes of these contorted limbs and I | - |
Think how the workmen have to modify | - |
The boxes where these bodies will be lain | Y |
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These eyes are wells made of a million tears | K |
Or crucibles where spangled metal cools | K |
These eyes of mystery have deathless charms | K |
For those who suckle Tribulation's breast | Z |
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II | - |
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Vestal of love from old Frascati's rooms | K |
Priestess of Thalia whose name only | X |
The buried prompter knows celebrity | X |
Whom Tivoli once shaded in its blooms | K |
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All make me drunk but with these weaker souls | K |
Are those making a honey of their grief | A2 |
Who've said to Sacrifice who lent them wings | K |
Lift me into the sky great Hippogriffe | A2 |
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One by her homeland trained in misery | X |
Another whom her husband overtaxed | B2 |
One a Madonna martyred by her child | Q |
Oh each could make a river with her tears | K |
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III | - |
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So many of these women I have stalked | C2 |
One among others when the sun would fall | D2 |
Steeping the sky in blood from ruby wounds | K |
Pensive would settle on a bench alone | E2 |
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To listen to a concert rich with brass | K |
With which the soldiers sometimes flood our parks | K |
And pour in evenings that revive the soul | V |
Such heroism in the townsmen's hearts | K |
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She then upright and proud stirred by the cause | K |
Vigorously inhaled this warlike song | F2 |
Sometimes her eye gleamed like an eagle's eye | - |
Fit for the laurel was her marble brow | G2 |
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IV | A2 |
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So you trudge on stoic without complaint | L |
Through the chaotic city's teeming waste | H2 |
Saints courtesans mothers of bleeding hearts | K |
Whose names in times past everyone had known | E2 |
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You glorious ones you who were full of grace | K |
Not one remembers you some rowdy drunk | I2 |
Insults you on the street with crude remarks | K |
A taunting child cuts capers at your heels | K |
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O you ashamed of living shrunken shades | K |
Fearful with backs bent how you hug the walls | K |
And no one greets you strange and fated souls | K |
Debris of man ripe for eternity | X |
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But I who from a distance mark your steps | K |
With tenderness and restless eye intent | J2 |
As though I were your father wondrous thought | K2 |
Unknown to you I taste a secret joy | L2 |
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I see your novice passions blossoming | M2 |
Sombre or sunny I see your lost days | K |
Heart multiplied I share in all your vice | K |
With all your virtue shines my glowing soul | V |
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Ruins my family my fellow minds | K |
Each evening I will bid a grave adieu | N2 |
What of tomorrow Eves of eighty years | K |
Pressed by the dreadful talon of the Lord | O2 |
Charles Baudelaire
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