Analysis of C'est la nuit ; la nuit noire, assoupie et profonde

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



C'est la nuit ; la nuit noire, assoupie et profonde.
L'ombre immense élargit ses ailes sur le monde.
Dans vos joyeux palais gardés par le canon,
Dans vos lits de velours, de damas, de linon,
Sous vos chauds couvre-pieds de martres zibelines,
Sous le nuage blanc des molles mousselines,
Derrière vos rideaux qui cachent sous leurs plis
Toutes les voluptés avec tous les oublis,
Aux sons d'une fanfare amoureuse et lointaine,
Tandis qu'une veilleuse, en tremblant, ose à peine
Éclairer le plafond de pourpre et de lampas,
Vous, duc de Saint-Arnaud, vous, comte de Maupas,
Vous, sénateurs, préfets, généraux, juges, princes,
Toi, César, qu'à genoux adorent tes provinces,
Toi qui rêvas l'empire et le réalisas,
Dormez, maîtres... - Voici le jour. Debout, forçats !


Scheme AABBCCCCBDCCCCCC
Poetic Form
Metre 111111111 101111101 11101111010 1111111011 11111111 1011111 1110111111 11111111 1111111 1111111 10111111 1111011111 11111111110 1111111100 111111001011 111101111
Closest metre Iambic heptameter
Characters 785
Words 124
Sentences 6
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 16
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 36
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 577
Words per stanza (avg) 124
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 14, 2023

39 sec read
293

Victor Marie Hugo

Victor Marie Hugo was a French poet, novelist, and dramatist of the Romantic movement. He is considered one of the greatest and best known French writers. In France, Hugo's literary fame comes first from his poetry but also rests upon his novels and his dramatic achievements. Among many volumes of poetry, Les Contemplations and La Légende des siècles stand particularly high in critical esteem. Outside France, his best-known works are the novels Les Misérables, 1862, and Notre-Dame de Paris, 1831. Though a committed royalist when he was young, Hugo's views changed as the decades passed; he became a passionate supporter of republicanism, and his work touches upon most of the political and social issues and artistic trends of his time. He was buried in the Panthéon. more…

All Victor Marie Hugo poems | Victor Marie Hugo Books

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