Death, in Life
We pass--these sleepBeneath the shade where deep-leaved boughsBend o'er the furrows the Great Reaper ploughs,And gentle summer winds in many sweepWhirl in eddying wavesThe dead leaves o'er the graves.
And the living sigh:Forgotten ones, so soon your memories die.Ye never more may list the wild bird's song,Or mingle in the crowded city-throng.Ye must ever dwell in gloom,'Mid the silence of the tomb.
And the dead reply:God giveth us His life. Ye die,Your barren lives are tilled with tears,For glory, ye are clad with fears.Oh, living ones! oh, earthly shades!We live; your beauty clouds and fades.
Words in this poem
- dwell v. i.
- To delay; to linger. [OE. dwellen, dwelien, to err, linger, AS. dwellan to deceive, hinder, delay, dwelian to err; akin to Icel. dvelja to delay, tarry, Sw. dväljas to dwell, Dan. dv]
- clad v.
- To clothe. Holland.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Death, in Life 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, Death, in Life, in Poems (1888), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8775, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hugo-poems/death-in-life.html, id L26814.
Form and metre
Death, in Life is 18 lines in 3 stanzas of 6 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABBCC, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic pentameter.
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 ABBACC sleepA · boughsB · ploughsB · sweepA · wavesC · gravesC
- 2 AABBCC sighA · dieA · songB · throngB · gloomC · tombC
- 3 AABBCC replyA · dieA · tearsB · fearsB · shadesC · fadesC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| We pass--these sleep | 4 | ···· |
| Beneath the shade where deep-leaved boughs | 9 | ·······˘· |
| Bend o'er the furrows the Great Reaper ploughs, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| And gentle summer winds in many sweep | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Whirl in eddying waves | 6 | ··/˘˘· |
| The dead leaves o'er the graves. | 6 | ······ |
| And the living sigh: | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Forgotten ones, so soon your memories die. | 10 | ˘/˘····/˘· |
| Ye never more may list the wild bird's song, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Or mingle in the crowded city-throng. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Ye must ever dwell in gloom, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| 'Mid the silence of the tomb. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| And the dead reply: | 5 | ···˘/ |
| God giveth us His life. Ye die, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Your barren lives are tilled with tears, | 9 | ·/˘···˘·· |
| For glory, ye are clad with fears. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Oh, living ones! oh, earthly shades! | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| We live; your beauty clouds and fades. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
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.