Analysis of Clair de lune (Moonlight on the Bosphorus)
Victor Marie Hugo 1802 (Besançon) – 1885 (Paris)
La lune était sereine et jouait sur les flots. -
La fenêtre enfin libre est ouverte à la brise,
La sultane regarde, et la mer qui se brise,
Là-bas, d'un flot d'argent brode les noirs îlots.
De ses doigts en vibrant s'échappe la guitare.
Elle écoute... Un bruit sourd frappe les sourds échos.
Est-ce un lourd vaisseau turc qui vient des eaux de Cos,
Battant l'archipel grec de sa rame tartare ?
Sont-ce des cormorans qui plongent tour à tour,
Et coupent l'eau, qui roule en perles sur leur aile ?
Est-ce un djinn qui là-haut siffle d'une voix grêle,
Et jette dans la mer les créneaux de la tour ?
Qui trouble ainsi les flots près du sérail des femmes ? -
Ni le noir cormoran, sur la vague bercé,
Ni les pierres du mur, ni le bruit cadencé
Du lourd vaisseau, rampant sur l'onde avec des rames.
Ce sont des sacs pesants, d'où partent des sanglots.
On verrait, en sondant la mer qui les promène,
Se mouvoir dans leurs flancs comme une forme humaine... -
La lune était sereine et jouait sur les flots.
Moonlight on the Bosphorus
Bright shone the merry moonbeams dancing o'er the wave;
At the cool casement, to the evening breeze flung wide,
Leans the Sultana, and delights to watch the tide,
With surge of silvery sheen, yon sleeping islets lave.
From her hand, as it falls, vibrates the light guitar.
She listens—hark! that sound that echoes dull and low.
Is it the beat upon the Archipelago
Of some long galley's oar, from Scio bound afar?
Is it the cormorants, whose black wings, one by one,
Cut the blue wave that o'er them breaks in liquid pearls?
Is it some hovering sprite with whistling scream that hurls
Down to the deep from yon old tower a loosened stone?
Who thus disturbs the tide near the seraglio?
'Tis no dark cormorants that on the ripple float,
'Tis no dull plume of stone—no oars of Turkish boat,
With measured beat along the water creeping slow.
'Tis heavy sacks, borne each by voiceless dusky slaves;
And could you dare to sound the depths of yon dark tide,
Something like human form would stir within its side.
Bright shone the merry moonbeams dancing o'er the wave.
Scheme | Aaaa baab bccb adda aeeA a Fggf bcdb xaax chhc aggF |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 111111111 1111101111 111111111 111111101111 1111101111 111111111 0111111111111 1111111 11111111 11111111111 0111111111110 11111111111 1101111111111 10111111 111111011 1111011111 1111111111 1111111111 111111111 111111111 1101 110101101001 10111010111 1010011101 1111001110101 101111100101 110111110101 1101010010 1111111101 110100111111 1011110110101 1111001110111 1101111100101 110101101 111100110101 111111111101 110101010101 11011111011 011111011111 101101110111 110101101001 |
Closest metre | Iambic heptameter |
Characters | 2,078 |
Words | 376 |
Sentences | 25 |
Stanzas | 11 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 1, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 41 |
Letters per line (avg) | 39 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 146 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 34 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 10, 2023
- 1:56 min read
- 166 Views
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"Clair de lune (Moonlight on the Bosphorus)" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/37670/clair-de-lune-%28moonlight-on-the-bosphorus%29>.
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