Analysis of Du haut de la muraille de Paris

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



à la nuit tombante

L'Occident était blanc, l'Orient était noir ;
Comme si quelque bras sorti des ossuaires
Dressait un catafalque aux colonnes du soir,
Et sur le firmament déployait deux suaires.

Et la nuit se fermait ainsi qu'une prison.
L'oiseau mêlait sa plainte au frisson de la plante.
J'allais. Quand je levai mes yeux vers l'horizon,
Le couchant n'était plus qu'une lame sanglante.

Cela faisait penser à quelque grand duel
D'un monstre contre un dieu, tous deux de même taille ;
Et l'on eût dit l'épée effrayante du ciel
Rouge et tombée à terre après une bataille.


Scheme A BCBC DADA EEXE
Poetic Form
Metre 111 1101111011 1111111 1111111 11011111 111111110 1111111111 1011111111010 01111111 10111110 111111111111 111111111111 1111101111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 590
Words 98
Sentences 7
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 1, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 13
Letters per line (avg) 34
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 109
Words per stanza (avg) 25
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 11, 2023

32 sec read
45

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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