Analysis of Childhood

Victor-Marie Hugo 1802 ( Besançon) – 1885 (Paris)



The small child sang; the mother, outstretched on the
    low bed,
    With anguish moaned, - fair Form pain should possess
    not long;
    For, ever nigher, Death hovered around her head:
    I hearkened there this moan, and heard even there
    that song.

The child was but five years, and, close to the lattice,
    aye
    Made a sweet noise with games and with his laughter
    bright;
    And the wan mother, aside this being the livelong day
    Carolling joyously, coughed hoarsely all the night.

The mother went to sleep 'mong them that sleep
    alway;
    And the blithe little lad began anew to sing...
    Sorrow is like a fruit: God doth not therewith weigh
    Earthward the branch strong yet but for the
    blossoming.


Scheme ABXCBXC XXXDED XXFEAF
Poetic Form
Metre 01110100110 11 1101111101 11 11011100101 1111101101 11 011111011010 1 10111101110 1 0011001110011 1111101 0101111111 1 001101010111 10110111111 10111110 100
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 734
Words 119
Sentences 4
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 7, 6, 6
Lines Amount 19
Letters per line (avg) 28
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 177
Words per stanza (avg) 40
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Submitted by naama on July 15, 2020

Modified on March 05, 2023

35 sec read
12

Victor-Marie Hugo

Victor Marie Hugo (French: [viktɔʁ maʁi yɡo] (listen); 7 Ventôse year X (26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French poet, novelist, and dramatist of the Romantic movement. During a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote abundantly in an exceptional variety of genres: lyrics, satires, epics, philosophical poems, epigrams, novels, history, critical essays, political speeches, funeral orations, diaries, letters public and private, and dramas in verse and prose. Hugo is considered to be one of the greatest and best-known French writers. Outside France, his most famous works are the novels Les Misérables, 1862, and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (French: Notre-Dame de Paris), 1831. In France, Hugo is renowned for his poetry collections, such as Les Contemplations (The Contemplations) and La Légende des siècles (The Legend of the Ages). Hugo was at the forefront of the Romantic literary movement with his play Cromwell and drama Hernani. Many of his works have inspired music, both during his lifetime and after his death, including the musicals Les Misérables and Notre-Dame de Paris. He produced more than 4,000 drawings in his lifetime, and campaigned for social causes such as the abolition of capital punishment. Though a committed royalist when he was young, Hugo's views changed as the decades passed, and he became a passionate supporter of republicanism; his work touched upon most of the political and social issues and the artistic trends of his time. His opposition to absolutism and his colossal literary achievement established him as a national hero. He was honoured by interment in the Panthéon.  more…

All Victor-Marie Hugo poems | Victor-Marie Hugo Books

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