Childhood
The small child sang; the mother, outstretched on the low bed,With anguish moaned,--fair Form pain should possess not long;For, ever nigher, Death hovered around her head:I hearkened there this moan, and heard even there that song.
The child was but five years, and, close to the lattice, ayeMade a sweet noise with games and with his laughter bright;And the wan mother, aside this being the livelong dayCarolling joyously, coughed hoarsely all the night.
The mother went to sleep 'mong them that sleep alway;And the blithe little lad began anew to sing...Sorrow is like a fruit: God doth not therewith weighEarthward the branch strong yet but for the blossoming.
Words in this poem
- livelong a.
- Whole; entire; long in passing; -- used of time, as day or night, in adverbial phrases, and usually with a sense of tediousness. [For lifelong. Cf. Lifelong.]
- hoarsely adv.
- With a harsh, grating sound or voice.
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- blithe a.
- Gay; merry; sprightly; joyous; glad; cheerful; as, a blithe spirit. [AS. bli blithe, kind; akin to Goth. blei kind, Icel. bli mild, gentle, Dan. & Sw. blid gentle, D. blijd blithe, OHG. blidi kind, blithe.]
- therewith adv.
- With that or this.
- earthward adv.
- Toward the earth; -- opposed to heavenward or skyward.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Childhood 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, Childhood, in Poems (1888), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8775, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hugo-poems/childhood.html, id L26809.
Form and metre
Childhood is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is alexandrines, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 71%).
See other poems in alexandrines.
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 ABAB bedA · longB · headA · songB
- 2 -A-A aye · brightA · day · nightA
- 3 -A-A alway · singA · weigh · blossomingA
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 alexandrines. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The small child sang; the mother, outstretched on the low bed, | 13 | ·····/˘˘/···· |
| With anguish moaned,--fair Form pain should possess not long; | 12 | ·/˘·····˘/·· |
| For, ever nigher, Death hovered around her head: | 12 | ·/˘···/˘···· |
| I hearkened there this moan, and heard even there that song. | 12 | ········/··· |
| The child was but five years, and, close to the lattice, aye | 13 | ··········/˘· |
| Made a sweet noise with games and with his laughter bright; | 12 | ·········/˘· |
| And the wan mother, aside this being the livelong day | 13 | ···/˘˘/·/·/˘· |
| Carolling joyously, coughed hoarsely all the night. | 12 | /˘˘···˘/˘··· |
| The mother went to sleep 'mong them that sleep alway; | 12 | ·/˘·······/˘ |
| And the blithe little lad began anew to sing... | 12 | ···/˘·˘/˘/·· |
| Sorrow is like a fruit: God doth not therewith weigh | 12 | /˘·······˘/· |
| Earthward the branch strong yet but for the blossoming. | 12 | ·········/˘˘ |
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.