The Thyrsus - To Franz Liszt Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABBBCD| What is a thyrsus According to the moral and poetical sense it is a sacerdotal emblem in the hand of the priests or priestesses celebrating the divinity of whom they are the interpreters and servants But physically it is no more than a baton a pure staff a hop pole a vine prop dry straight and hard | A |
| Around this baton in capricious meanderings stems and flowers twine and wanton these sinuous and fugitive those hanging like bells or inverted cups | B |
| And an astonishing complexity disengages itself from this complexity of tender or brilliant lines and colours | B |
| Would not one suppose that the curved line and the spiral pay their court to the straight line and twine about it in a mute adoration Would not one say that all these delicate corollse all these calices explosions of odours and colours execute a mystical dance around the hieratic staff And what imprudent mortal will dare to decide whether the flowers and the vine branches have been made for the baton or whether the baton is not but a pretext to set forth the beauty of the vine branches and the flowers | B |
| The thyrsus is the symbol of your astonishing duality O powerful and venerated master dear bacchanal of a mysterious and impassioned Beauty Never a nymph excited by the mysterious Dionysius shook her thyrsus over the heads of her companions with as much energy as your genius trembles in the hearts of your brothers The baton is your will erect firm unshakeable the flowers are the wanderings of your fancy around it the feminine element encircling the masculine with her illusive dance Straight line and arabesque intention and expression the rigidity of the will and the suppleness of the word a variety of means united for a single purpose the allpowerful and indivisible amalgam that is genius what analyst will have the detestable courage to divide or to separate you | C |
| Dear Liszt across the fogs beyond the flowers in towns where the pianos chant your glory where the printing house translates your wisdom in whatever place you be in the splendour of the Eternal City or among the fogs of the dreamy towns that Cambrinus consoles improvising rituals of delight or ineffable pain or giving to paper your abstruse meditations singer of eternal pleasure and pain philosopher poet and artist I offer you the salutation of immortality | D |
Charles Baudelaire
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Imre Simon: Amazing insight by Baudelaire. The greatest poet of his time.
David Stowell : This poem concerning Franz Liszt is charming and concentrated, like all of Baudelaires poetry and prose. I just learned that Master Liszt was not only a celebrated composer but also a generous philanthropist, giving away most all of the money he earned during his career. A true artist cannot be greedy, the dazzle and falsity of material wealth obscure and debase the vision and ardor of men like Liszt and Baudelaire. The Thyrsus is used to this day representing the Physicians craft, adorned above with the pine cone, whom some say represents the pineal gland, whom some say is the Hindi Third Eye and the seat of consciousness and enlightenment.
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