Esmeralda in Prison
Phoebus, is there not this side the grave,Power to saveThose who're loving? Magic balmThat will restore to me my former calm?Is there nothing tearful eyeCan e'er dry, or hush the sigh?I pray Heaven day and night,As I lay me down in fright,To retake my life, or giveAll again for which I'd live!Phoebus, hasten from the shining sphereTo me here!Hither hasten, bring me Death; then LoveMay let our spirits rise, ever-linked, above!
Words in this poem
- phoebus n.
- Apollo; the sun god.
- tearful a.
- Abounding with tears; weeping; shedding tears; as, tearful eyes.
- retake v. t.
- To take or receive again.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Esmeralda in Prison 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, Esmeralda in Prison, in Poems (1888), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8775, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hugo-poems/esmeralda-in-prison.html, id L26863.
Form and metre
Esmeralda in Prison is 14 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%).
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in trochaic tetrameter.
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 AABBCCDDEEFFGG graveA · saveA · balmB · calmB · eyeC · sighC · nightD · frightD · giveE · liveE · sphereF · hereF · loveG · aboveG
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Phoebus, is there not this side the grave, | 9 | /˘······· |
| Power to save | 4 | /˘·· |
| Those who're loving? Magic balm | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| That will restore to me my former calm? | 10 | ··˘/···/˘· |
| Is there nothing tearful eye | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Can e'er dry, or hush the sigh? | 7 | ······· |
| I pray Heaven day and night, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| As I lay me down in fright, | 7 | ······· |
| To retake my life, or give | 7 | ·˘/···· |
| All again for which I'd live! | 7 | ·˘/···· |
| Phoebus, hasten from the shining sphere | 9 | /˘/˘··/˘· |
| To me here! | 3 | ··· |
| Hither hasten, bring me Death; then Love | 9 | /˘/˘····· |
| May let our spirits rise, ever-linked, above! | 10 | ··//˘·/··· |
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.