Epitaph
He lived and ever played, the tender smiling thing.What need, O Earth, to have plucked this flower from blossoming?Hadst thou not then the birds with rainbow-colors bright,The stars and the great woods, the wan wave, the blue sky?What need to have rapt this child from her thou hadst placed him by--Beneath those other flowers to have hid this flower from sight?
Because of this one child thou hast no more of might,O star-girt Earth, his death yields thee not higher delight!But, ah! the mother's heart with woe for ever wild,This heart whose sovran bliss brought forth so bitter birth--This world as vast as thou, even thou, O sorrowless Earth,Is desolate and void because of this one child!
Words in this poem
- rapt n.
- An ecstasy; a trance. Bp. Morton. [From F. rapt abduction, rape, L. raptus, fr. rapere to seize and carry off, to transport; or fr. E. rapt, a. See Rapt, a., and Rapid.]
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- girt v. t.
- To gird; to encircle; to invest by means of a girdle; to measure the girth of; as, to girt a tree. [From Girt, n., cf. Girth, v.]
- sovran a.
- A variant of Sovereign.
- sorrowless a.
- Free from sorrow.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Epitaph 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, Epitaph, in Poems (1888), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8775, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hugo-poems/epitaph.html, id L26816.
Form and metre
Epitaph is 12 lines in 2 stanzas of 6 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABCCB. The metre is iambic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%).
See other poems in iambic hexameter.
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 thingA · blossomingA · brightB · skyC · byC · sightB
- 2 AABCCB mightA · delightA · wildB · birthC · earthC · childB
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 hexameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| He lived and ever played, the tender smiling thing. | 12 | ···/˘··/˘/˘· |
| What need, O Earth, to have plucked this flower from blossoming? | 13 | ········/·/˘˘ |
| Hadst thou not then the birds with rainbow-colors bright, | 12 | ·······/·/˘· |
| The stars and the great woods, the wan wave, the blue sky? | 12 | ············ |
| What need to have rapt this child from her thou hadst placed him by-- | 14 | ·············· |
| Beneath those other flowers to have hid this flower from sight? | 13 | ···/˘/····/·· |
| Because of this one child thou hast no more of might, | 12 | ············ |
| O star-girt Earth, his death yields thee not higher delight! | 12 | ·········/˘/ |
| But, ah! the mother's heart with woe for ever wild, | 12 | ···/˘····/˘· |
| This heart whose sovran bliss brought forth so bitter birth-- | 12 | ···/˘····/˘· |
| This world as vast as thou, even thou, O sorrowless Earth, | 13 | ······/··/˘˘· |
| Is desolate and void because of this one child! | 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.