Analysis of Oh, Why Not Be Happy?

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



[RUY BLAS, Act II.]

Oh, why not be happy this bright summer day,
'Mid perfume of roses and newly-mown hay?
Great Nature is smiling--the birds in the air
Sing love-lays together, and all is most fair.
Then why not be happy
This bright summer day,
'Mid perfume of roses
And newly-mown hay?

The streamlets they wander through meadows so fleet,
Their music enticing fond lovers to meet;
The violets are blooming and nestling their heads
In richest profusion on moss-coated beds.
Then why not be happy
This bright summer day,
When Nature is fairest
And all is so gay?


Scheme x aabbCAxa ddeeCAxa
Poetic Form
Metre 1111 11111011101 10111001011 11011001001 11101001111 111110 11101 101110 01011 011101111 11001011011 010011001011 01001011101 111110 11101 110110 01111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 554
Words 102
Sentences 7
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 1, 8, 8
Lines Amount 17
Letters per line (avg) 26
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 147
Words per stanza (avg) 33
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

30 sec 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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