Analysis of A L’Hirondelle

Andre Marie de Chenier 1762 (Constantinople) – 1794 (Paris)



Fille de Pandion, ô jeune Athénienne,
La cigale est ta proie, hirondelle inhumaine,
Et nourrit tes petits qui, débiles encor,
Nus, tremblants, dans les airs n'osent prendre l'essor.
Tu voles; comme toi la cigale a des ailes.
Tu chantes; elle chante. À vos chansons fidèles
Le moissonneur s'égaye, et l'automne orageux
En des climats lointains vous chasse toutes deux.
Oses-tu donc porter dans ta cruelle joie
A ton nid sans pitié cette innocente proie?
Et faut-il voir périr un chanteur sans appui
Sous la morsure, hélas! d'un chanteur comme lui!


Scheme AABBCDCEFBGH
Poetic Form
Metre 111111 11011111 11111111 11111111 111111011 11111111 0111111 11111111 111101111 01111111 1111111111 11111111110
Closest metre Iambic heptameter
Characters 554
Words 92
Sentences 8
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 12
Lines Amount 12
Letters per line (avg) 35
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 422
Words per stanza (avg) 90
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

29 sec read
108

Andre Marie de Chenier

André Marie Chénier was a French poet of Greek and Franco-Levantine origin, associated with the events of the French Revolution of which he was a victim. His sensual, emotive poetry marks him as one of the precursors of the Romantic movement. His career was brought to an abrupt end when he was guillotined for supposed "crimes against the state", just three days before the end of the Reign of Terror. Chénier's life has been the subject of Umberto Giordano's opera Andrea Chénier and other works of art. more…

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    "A L’Hirondelle" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/2374/a-l%E2%80%99hirondelle>.

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