The Steps

Paul Valery 1871 (Sète) – 1945 (Paris)



Your steps, children of my silence,
Holily, slowly placed,
Towards the bed of my vigilance
Proceed dumb and frozen.

Nobody pure, divine shade,
That they are soft, your steps selected!
Gods!… all the gifts which I guess
Come to me on these naked feet!

If, of your advanced lips,
You prepare to alleviate it,
An inhabitant of my thoughts
The food of a kiss,

Does not hasten this tender act,
To be soft and not to be not?
Because I lived to await you,
And my heart was only your steps.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

28 sec read
150

Quick analysis:

Scheme AXAX XXXX XXXX XXXX
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 491
Words 94
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4

Paul Valery

Ambroise-Paul-Toussaint-Jules Valéry was a French poet, essayist, and philosopher. more…

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