An Autumnal Simile
The leaves that in the lonely walks were spread,Starting from off the ground beneath the tread,Coursed o'er the garden-plain;Thus, sometimes, 'mid the soul's deep sorrowings,Our soul a moment mounts on wounded wings,Then, swiftly, falls again.
Words in this poem
- coursed a.
- Hunted; as, a coursed hare.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
An Autumnal Simile is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #8775, the various hands translation; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Victor Hugo, An Autumnal Simile, in Poems (1888), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8775, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hugo-poems/an-autumnal-simile.html, id L26861.
Form and metre
An Autumnal Simile is 6 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes AABCCB. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 AABCCB spreadA · treadA · plainB · sorrowingsC · wingsC · againB
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The leaves that in the lonely walks were spread, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Starting from off the ground beneath the tread, | 10 | /˘········ |
| Coursed o'er the garden-plain; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Thus, sometimes, 'mid the soul's deep sorrowings, | 10 | ·˘/······· |
| Our soul a moment mounts on wounded wings, | 10 | /··/˘··/˘· |
| Then, swiftly, falls again. | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.