Analysis of L'enfance (Childhood)
Victor Marie Hugo 1802 (Besançon) – 1885 (Paris)
L'enfant chantait; la mère au lit, exténuée,
Agonisait, beau front dans l'ombre se penchant ;
La mort au-dessus d'elle errait dans la nuée ;
Et j'écoutais ce râle, et j'entendais ce chant.
L'enfant avait cinq ans, et près de la fenêtre
Ses rires et ses jeux faisaient un charmant bruit ;
Et la mère, à côté de ce pauvre doux être
Qui chantait tout le jour, toussait toute la nuit.
La mère alla dormir sous les dalles du cloître ;
Et le petit enfant se remit à chanter...
La douleur est un fruit ; Dieu ne le fait pas croître
Sur la branche trop faible encor pour le porter.
The Child was singing, and the Mother lay
Stretched on the bed which pain and anguish throng,
Death's cloud fast closing on her parting day:
I heard her laboring breath, I heard the song.
The Child its gambols by the lattice plied;
Its sport, its laughter, sounded glad and bright;
And the poor Mother by her darling's side,
Who sang all day, coughed through the painful night.
The Mother sleeps the cloister's stones below;
The Child sings, heedless of its orphan state:
Grief is a fruit that God forbids to grow
On boughs too feeble to support its weight.
Scheme | ABAX CBCB CCCX CDCD EFEF GHGH |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (67%) |
Metre | 1111111111 11111110 11111111111 1111101111 11111111111 111111111 11111111111 111011111 111101111111 101011011 1101111101111 1111111010 0111000101 1101110101 1111010101 11010011101 011110101 1111010101 001101011 1111110101 010101101 011111101 1101110111 1111010111 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 1,145 |
Words | 206 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 36 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 144 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 35 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 31, 2023
- 1:04 min read
- 161 Views
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"L'enfance (Childhood)" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/37767/l%27enfance-%28childhood%29>.
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