Analysis of Attente (Expectation)
Victor Marie Hugo 1802 (Besançon) – 1885 (Paris)
Monte, écureuil, monte au grand chêne,
Sur la branche des cieux prochaine,
Qui plie et tremble comme un jonc.
Cigogne, aux vieilles tours fidèle,
Oh ! vole et monte à tire-d'aile
De l'église à la citadelle,
Du haut clocher au grand donjon.
Vieux aigle, monte de ton aire
A la montagne centenaire
Que blanchit l'hiver éternel.
Et toi qu'en ta couche inquiète
Jamais l'aube ne vit muette,
Monte, monte, vive alouette,
Vive alouette, monte au ciel !
Et maintenant, du haut de l'arbre,
Des flèches de la tour de marbre,
Du grand mont, du ciel enflammé,
A l'horizon, parmi la brume,
Voyez-vous flotter une plume
Et courir un cheval qui fume,
Et revenir mon bien-aimé ?
Squirrel, mount yon oak so high,
To its twig that next the sky
Bends and trembles as a flower!
Strain, O stork, thy pinion well,—
From thy nest 'neath old church-bell,
Mount to yon tall citadel,
And its tallest donjon tower!
To your mountain, eagle old,
Mount, whose brow so white and cold,
Kisses the last ray of even!
And, O thou that lov'st to mark
Morn's first sunbeam pierce the dark,
Mount, O mount, thou joyous lark—
Joyous lark, O mount to heaven!
And now say, from topmost bough,
Towering shaft, and peak of snow,
And heaven's arch—O, can you see
One white plume that like a star,
Streams along the plain afar,
And a steed that from the war
Bears my lover back to me?
Scheme | AABCCCA DDCAEEX DDFFFFF XBDGGGDEEXBBBXXXADDDA |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 101101111 111111 11110111 111110 11110101 11111 111111 1110111 01011 1111 11111111 111111 101011 111011 111111 11111111 111111 01010111 11111 111111 11111 1011111 1111101 1011010 1111101 1111111 111110 0110110 1110101 1111101 10011110 0111111 111101 1111101 10111110 011111 10010111 01011111 1111101 1010101 0011101 1110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,335 |
Words | 244 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 7, 7, 7, 21 |
Lines Amount | 42 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 254 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 61 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:16 min read
- 105 Views
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"Attente (Expectation)" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/37623/attente-%28expectation%29>.
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