Analysis of The First Black Flag
Victor Marie Hugo 1802 (Besançon) – 1885 (Paris)
JOB. Hast thou ne'er heard men say
That, in the Black Wood, 'twixt Cologne and Spire,
Upon a rock flanked by the towering mountains,
A castle stands, renowned among all castles?
And in this fort, on piles of lava built,
A burgrave dwells, among all burgraves famed?
Hast heard of this wild man who laughs at laws--
Charged with a thousand crimes--for warlike deeds
Renowned--and placed under the Empire's ban
By the Diet of Frankfort; by the Council
Of Pisa banished from the Holy Church;
Reprobate, isolated, cursed--yet still
Unconquered 'mid his mountains and in will;
The bitter foe of the Count Palatine
And Treves' proud archbishop; who has spurned
For sixty years the ladder which the Empire
Upreared to scale his walls? Hast heard that he
Shelters the brave--the flaunting rich man strips--
Of master makes a slave? That here, above
All dukes, aye, kings, eke emperors--in the eyes
Of Germany to their fierce strife a prey,
He rears upon his tower, in stern defiance,
A signal of appeal to the crushed people,
A banner vast, of Sorrow's sable hue,
Snapped by the tempest in its whirlwind wrath,
So that kings quiver as the jades at whips?
Hast heard, he touches now his hundredth year--
And that, defying fate, in face of heaven,
On his invincible peak, no force of war
Uprooting other holds--nor powerful Caesar--
Nor Rome--nor age, that bows the pride of man--
Nor aught on earth--hath vanquished, or subdued,
Or bent this ancient Titan of the Rhine,
The excommunicated Job?
Scheme | ABCDEFGHIJKLLMNOPQRSATJUVQWXYOIZM1 |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111111 1001110101 010111010010 01010101110 0011111101 01101111 1111111111 110101111 01011001001 10101101010 1101010101 100100111 11110001 010110110 011110111 110101010100 111111111 1001010111 1101011101 11111100001 1100111101 110111001010 01010110110 010111101 110100111 1111010111 1111011101 01010101110 11010011111 010101110010 1111110111 1111110101 1111010101 001001 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,459 |
Words | 256 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 34 |
Lines Amount | 34 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 1,158 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 254 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:17 min read
- 74 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"The First Black Flag" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/37808/the-first-black-flag>.
Discuss this Victor Marie Hugo poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In