Analysis of Le matin (Morning)

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



Moriturus moriturae !

Le voile du matin sur les monts se déploie.
Vois, un rayon naissant blanchit la vieille tour ;
Et déjà dans les cieux s'unit avec amour,
Ainsi que la gloire à la joie,
Le premier chant des bois aux premiers feux du jour.

Oui, souris à l'éclat dont le ciel se décore ! -
Tu verras, si demain le cercueil me dévore,
Un soleil aussi beau luire à ton désespoir,
Et les mêmes oiseaux chanter la même aurore,
Sur mon tombeau muet et noir !

Mais dans l'autre horizon l'âme alors est ravie.
L'avenir sans fin s'ouvre à l'être illimité.
Au matin de l'éternité
On se réveille de la vie,
Comme d'une nuit sombre ou d'un rêve agité.

The mist of the morning is torn by the peaks
Old towers gleam white in the ray,
And already the glory so joyously seeks
The lark that's saluting the day.

Then smile away, man, at the heavens so fair,
Though, were you swept hence in the night,
From your dark, lonely tomb the owlets would stare
At the sun rising newly as bright.

But out of earth's trammels your soul would have flown
Where glitters Eternity's stream,
And you shall have wake 'midst pure glories unknown,
As sunshine disperses a dream.


Scheme A XAAXA AAAAA BCCBC DADC ACAC EFEF
Poetic Form
Metre 11 0111111111 111011111 11111111011 111111 001111101111 11011101111 1110101111 101111111 1111111111 111111 111010111011 1111111 11111 1111111 1111111111 01101011101 11011001 0010010111 01101001 11011101011 10111001 1111010111 101101011 1111111111 11011 01111111001 11101
Closest metre Iambic hexameter
Characters 1,166
Words 211
Sentences 12
Stanzas 7
Stanza Lengths 1, 5, 5, 5, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 28
Letters per line (avg) 31
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 124
Words per stanza (avg) 30
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 19, 2023

1:07 min read
128

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…

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