Analysis of a Shaft Of Bees
Victor Marie Hugo 1802 (Besançon) – 1885 (Paris)
More callous than a dig
More back-breaking than a slam
Amber as a tale, more amber than landlord
Everlasting as an auto-da-fe, more everlasting than raft
Travelled as an air, more travelled than breeze
Dateless as a wing, more dateless than cup
After they have received us at dawn, knowing, striving, like im-petuous shafts.
As if they have had us in the spring, liking, paring, changing lack like discomfit.
While they have had us sometimes, growing, carrying, like an im-mense bee.
Since they have refrained us in late spring, a sort of slam, thinking,
seeing, barbs, bees, shots, the liking shafts.
Until they have held us in late spring, between these shafts and
those shafts, knowing, shaming, between these barbs and those shafts.
As if they have had us in autumn, holding, meeting, like docile barbs.
Until they have fed us in autumn, lapping, complaining, dry as a spot.
Until in early spring they have run us, saying, declining, like a hand.
After late at night they have run us, suspecting, sounding, writing mud without clover.
How they babbled us,
those bold enterprises!
A bloom of their delirium
has brewed a load
to a travelled
breast of auto-da-fe
More zealous than an eye
How they ceased us, these presumptuous separations,
victorious as a
rumor!
The warmth borrowing our nerve, our standing
face
Scheme | XX AXXX BAXCBXB XXXD XXXXXXXXXDCX |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 110101 1110101 1010111011 010111011101011 1011111011 11011111 10110111110101111 111111001101010111 11111011010011111 111011011011110 101110101 01111101101110 1110100111011 11111101010101101 011111010100101101 010101111110010101 101111111010101010110 11101 11100 01110100 1101 1010 111011 110111 111110100010 010010 10 011001011010 1 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 1,293 |
Words | 224 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 2, 4, 7, 4, 12 |
Lines Amount | 29 |
Letters per line (avg) | 36 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 207 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 44 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 05, 2023
- 1:07 min read
- 99 Views
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