France! à l'heure où tu te prosternes

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



France ! à l'heure où tu te prosternes,
Le pied d'un tyran sur ton front,
La voix sortira des cavernes
Les enchaînés tressailleront.

Le banni, debout sur la grève,
Contemplant l'étoile et le flot,
Comme ceux qu'on entend en rêve,
Parlera dans l'ombre tout haut ;

Et ses paroles qui menacent,
Ses paroles dont l'éclair luit,
Seront comme des mains qui passent
Tenant des glaives dans la nuit.

Elles feront frémir les marbres
Et les monts que brunit le soir,
Et les chevelures des arbres
Frissonneront sous le ciel noir ;

Elles seront l'airain qui sonne,
Le cri qui chasse les corbeaux,
Le souffle inconnu dont frissonne
Le brin d'herbe sur les tombeaux ;

Elles crieront : Honte aux infâmes,
Aux oppresseurs, aux meurtriers !
Elles appelleront les âmes
Comme on appelle des guerriers !

Sur les races qui se transforment,
Sombre orage, elles planeront ;
Et si ceux qui vivent s'endorment,
Ceux qui sont morts s'éveilleront.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

48 sec read
63

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABAB CBCX BBBB ADAD EAEA AAAA BBBB
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 913
Words 151
Stanzas 7
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4

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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