Analysis of The Eaglet Mourned
Victor Marie Hugo 1802 (Besançon) – 1885 (Paris)
Too hard Napoleon's fate! if, lone,
No being he had loved, no single one,
Less dark that doom had been.
But with the heart of might doth ever dwell
The heart of love! And in his island cell
Two things there were, I ween:
Two things,—a portrait and a map there were.
Here hung the pictured world, an infant there:
That framed his genius, this enshrined his love.
And as at eve he glanced round th'alcove,
Where jailers watched his very thoughts to spy,
What mused he then? What dreams of years gone by
Stirred 'neath that discrowned brow and fired that glistening eye?
T' was not the steps of that heroic tale
That from Arcola marched to Montmirail
On Glory's red degrees;
Nor Cairo-pashas' steel-devouring steeds,
Nor the tall shadows of the Pyramids,—
Ah, 't was not always these!
'T was not the bursting shell, the iron sleet,
The whirlwind rush of battle 'neath his feet,
Through twice ten years ago,
When at his beck, upon that sea of steel
Were launched the rustling banners, there to reel
Like masts when tempests blow.
'T was not Madrid, nor Kremlin of the Czar,
Nor Pharos on Old Egypt's coast afar,
Nor shrill réveille's camp-awakening sound,
Nor bivouac couch'd its starry fires around,
Crested dragoons, grim, veteran grenadiers,
Nor the red lancers 'mid their wood of spears
Blazing like baleful poppies 'mong the golden ears.
No; 't was an infant's image, fresh and fair,
With rosy mouth half oped, as slumbering there
It lay beneath the smile
Of her whose breast, soft-bending o'er its sleep,
Lingering upon that little lip doth keep
One pendent drop the while.
Then, his sad head upon his hands inclined,
He wept; that father-heart all unconfined,
Outpoured in love alone.
My blessing on thy clay-cold head, poor child.
Sole being for whose sake his thoughts, beguiled,
Forgot the world's lost throne.
Scheme | AXXBBA XCXXDDD XBEXXE FFGHHG IIJJEKK CCLMML NNAOOA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 110100111 1101111101 111111 1101111101 0111001101 111011 1101000110 1101011101 1111010111 0111111111 1101110111 1111111111 1111101011001 11101110101 11010111 11101 1101101001 101110100 111111 11101010101 011110111 111101 1111011111 0101010111 11111 11101110101 111110101 1111101001 11011101001 10111001 1011011111 101101010101 11111010101 11011111001 110101 10111101011 10001110111 11101 1111011101 111101101 10101 1101111111 1101111101 010111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,786 |
Words | 319 |
Sentences | 15 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 7, 6, 6, 7, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 44 |
Letters per line (avg) | 32 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 202 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 45 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 02, 2023
- 1:38 min read
- 116 Views
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