Ah! c'est un rêve! non! nous n'y consentons point

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



Ah ! c'est un rêve ! non ! nous n'y consentons point.
Dresse-toi, la colère au coeur, l'épée au poing,
France ! prends ton bâton, prends ta fourche, ramasse
Les pierres du chemin, debout, levée en masse !
France ! qu'est-ce que c'est que cette guerre-là ?
Nous refusons Mandrin, Dieu nous doit Attila.
Toujours, quand il lui plaît d'abattre un grand empire,
Un noble peuple, en qui le genre humain respire,
Rome ou Thèbes, le sort respectueux se sert
De quelque monstre auguste et fauve du désert.
Pourquoi donc cet affront ? c'est trop. Tu t'y résignes,
Toi, France ? non, jamais. Certes, nous étions dignes
D'être dévorés, peuple, et nous sommes mangés !
C'est trop de s'être dit : - Nous serons égorgés
Comme Athène et Memphis, comme Troie et Solime,
Grandement, dans l'éclair d'une lutte sublime ! -
Et de se sentir mordre, en bas, obscurément,
Dans l'ombre, et d'être en proie à ce fourmillement,
Les pillages, les vols, les pestes, les famines
D'espérer les lions, et d'avoir les vermines !

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

54 sec read
69

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABCCDEFFAACCCCGGAACC
Closest metre Iambic heptameter
Characters 1,028
Words 163
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 20

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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    "Ah! c'est un rêve! non! nous n'y consentons point" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/37607/ah!-c'est-un-rêve!-non!-nous-n'y-consentons-point>.

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