Analysis of Napoleon
Victor Marie Hugo 1802 (Besançon) – 1885 (Paris)
Angel or demon! thou,—whether of light
The minister, or darkness—still dost sway
This age of ours; thine eagle's soaring flight
Bears us, all breathless, after it away.
The eye that from thy presence fain would stry
Shuns thee in vain; thy mighty shadow thrown
Rests on all pictures of the living day,
And on the threshold of our time alone,
Dazzling, yet sombre, stands thy form, Napoleon!
Thus, when the admiring stranger's steps explore
The subject-lands that 'neath Vesuvius be,
Whether he wind along the enchanting shore
To Portici from fair Parthenope,
Or, lingering long in dreamy reverie,
O'er loveliest Ischia's od'rous isle he stray,
Wooed by whose breath the soft and am'rous sea
Seems like some languishing sultana's lay,—
A voice for very sweets that scarce can win its way;
Him, whether Paestum's solemn fane detain,
Shrouding his soul with meditation's power;
Or at Pozzuloil, to the sprightly strain
Of tarantella danced 'neath Tuscan tower,
Listening, he while away the evening hour;
Or wake the echoes, mournful, lone and deep,
Of that sad city, in its dreaming bower
By the volcano seized, where mansions keep
The likeness which they wore at that last fatal sleep;
Or be his bark at Posillippo laid,
While as the swarthy boatman at his side
Chants Tasso's lays to Virgil's pleased shade,—
Ever he sees, throughout that circuit wide,
From shaded nook or sunny lawn espied,
From rocky headland viewed, or flow'ry whore,
From sea and spreading mead alike descried,
The Giant Mount, tow'ring all objects o'er,
And black'ning with its breath th' horizon evermore!
Scheme | ABABCDBDX CECFCBEBB GCGCCFCFF HIHIACACC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1011011011 0100110111 11110110101 1111010101 0111110111 110111011 1111010101 0101110101 100111110100 11001010101 00111101001 10110100101 11111 11001010100 10111111 111101011 11110011 011101111111 110110101 10111110 11110101 11111010 100110101010 1101010101 11110011010 1001011101 010111111101 1111111 1101010111 1111111 1011011101 110111011 11011111 110101011 01011111010 0111111101010 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,558 |
Words | 266 |
Sentences | 5 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 9, 9, 9, 9 |
Lines Amount | 36 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 312 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 65 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 30, 2023
- 1:24 min read
- 63 Views
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"Napoleon" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 13 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/37781/napoleon>.
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