Analysis of The Poor Children
Victor Marie Hugo 1802 (Besançon) – 1885 (Paris)
Take heed of this small child of earth;
He is great; he hath in him God most high.
Children before their fleshly birth
Are lights alive in the blue sky.
In our light bitter world of wrong
They come; God gives us them awhile.
His speech is in their stammering tongue,
And his forgiveness in their smile.
Their sweet light rests upon our eyes.
Alas! their right to joy is plain.
If they are hungry Paradise
Weeps, and, if cold, Heaven thrills with pain.
The want that saps their sinless flower
Speaks judgment on sin's ministers.
Man holds an angel in his power.
Ah! deep in Heaven what thunder stirs,
When God seeks out these tender things
Whom in the shadow where we sleep
He sends us clothed about with wings,
And finds them ragged babes that weep!
Scheme | ABAB XCXC XDXD EFEF GHGH |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 11111111 1111101111 1001111 11010011 010110111 11111101 1110111 01010011 111101101 01111111 1111010 101110111 01111110 11011100 111100110 110101101 11111101 1001111 11110111 01110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 761 |
Words | 140 |
Sentences | 13 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 20 |
Letters per line (avg) | 30 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 118 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 28 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 42 sec read
- 160 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"The Poor Children" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/37819/the-poor-children>.
Discuss this Victor Marie Hugo poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In