Analysis of To My Daughter
Victor Marie Hugo 1802 (Besançon) – 1885 (Paris)
My child! thou seest me content to lead
A lonely life. Do thou, in imitation,
Not happy, nor triumphant, learn the need
Of resignation.
All guileless be, commercing with the skies,
And as a sun to glorify the whole;
My child, within the azure of thine eyes,
Put thou thy soul.
For none are happy, none triumphant here;
To all their little span is incomplete.
Our life is but a shadow, and, my dear,
The shadows fleet.
Yes! of their weary lot all men complain.
To happiness, oh! strange and cruel fate,
All things are wanting, all! we seek in vain,
Or find too late.
What are the boons we crave, each for his part,
The hope of which doth still our hearts beguile?
Renown and wealth, a word, a woman’s heart,
A loving smile.
Mirth, to the unloved king, is wanting still;
A drop of water to Sahara’s plain;
Man’s heart is like a well, which, as we fill,
But dries again.
Behold those thinkers whom we idolize,
Those heroes whose command we gladly own,
Whose names illuminate our somber skies—
Where are they flown?
They rose like meteors through the wintry air,
And dazzled for a moment every eye;
Then sunk into the careless grave, and there
In darkness lie.
Kind Heaven, that knows our bitter griefs and fears,
Takes pity on our vain and empty days,
And bathes each morning with refreshing tears
Our dusty ways.
One only law there is, so just and mild,
Of which each honest heart must own the sway:
To pity, nothing hate, and, oh! my child,
To love alway.
Scheme | XAXA BCBC XDXD EFEF GHGH IEIX BJBJ KLKL XMXM NONO |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (90%) Tetractys (30%) Etheree (20%) |
Metre | 111111011 0101110010 1101010101 1010 11011101 010111001 1101010111 1111 1111010101 1111011001 1011101011 011 1111011101 1100110101 1111011101 1111 1101111111 01111110101 010101011 0101 1100111101 01110111 1111011111 1101 011101110 1101011101 11010010101 1111 11110010101 01010101001 1101010101 0101 110111010101 11011010101 0111010101 10101 1101111101 1111011101 1101010111 111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,431 |
Words | 270 |
Sentences | 20 |
Stanzas | 10 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 112 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 27 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 28, 2023
- 1:21 min read
- 95 Views
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