How Butterflies Are Born
The dawn is smiling on the dew that coversThe tearful roses--lo, the little lovers--That kiss the buds and all the flutteringsIn jasmine bloom, and privet, of white wingsThat go and come, and fly, and peep, and hideWith muffled music, murmured far and wide!Ah, Springtime, when we think of all the laysThat dreamy lovers send to dreamy Mays,Of the proud hearts within a billet bound,Of all the soft silk paper that men wound,The messages of love that mortals write,Filled with intoxication of delight,Written in April, and before the MaytimeShredded and flown, playthings for the winds' playtime.We dream that all white butterflies above,Who seek through clouds or waters souls to love,And leave their lady mistress to despair,To flirt with flowers, as tender and more fair,Are but torn love-letters, that through the skiesFlutter, and float, and change to Butterflies.
Words in this poem
- tearful a.
- Abounding with tears; weeping; shedding tears; as, tearful eyes.
- springtime n.
- The season of spring; springtide.
- dreamy a.
- Abounding in dreams or given to dreaming; appropriate to, or like, dreams; visionary.
- billet n.
- A small paper; a note; a short letter. [F. billet, dim. of an OF. bille bill. See Bill a writing.]
- flown a.
- Flushed, inflated.
- playtime n.
- Time for play or diversion.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
How Butterflies Are Born 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, How Butterflies Are Born, in Poems (1888), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8775, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hugo-poems/how-butterflies-are-born.html, id L26811.
Form and metre
How Butterflies Are Born is 20 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
See other poems in heroic couplets, 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 AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIIJJ coversA · loversA · flutteringsB · wingsB · hideC · wideC · laysD · maysD · boundE · woundE · writeF · delightF · maytimeG · playtimeG · aboveH · loveH · despairI · fairI · skiesJ · butterfliesJ
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 dawn is smiling on the dew that covers | 11 | ···/˘····/˘ |
| The tearful roses--lo, the little lovers-- | 11 | ·/˘/˘··/˘/˘ |
| That kiss the buds and all the flutterings | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| In jasmine bloom, and privet, of white wings | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| That go and come, and fly, and peep, and hide | 10 | ·········· |
| With muffled music, murmured far and wide! | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘··· |
| Ah, Springtime, when we think of all the lays | 10 | ·/········ |
| That dreamy lovers send to dreamy Mays, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Of the proud hearts within a billet bound, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Of all the soft silk paper that men wound, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| The messages of love that mortals write, | 10 | ·/˘˘···/˘· |
| Filled with intoxication of delight, | 10 | ··˘·˘/˘·˘/ |
| Written in April, and before the Maytime | 11 | /˘·/˘······ |
| Shredded and flown, playthings for the winds' playtime. | 11 | /˘··/····/˘ |
| We dream that all white butterflies above, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Who seek through clouds or waters souls to love, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And leave their lady mistress to despair, | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| To flirt with flowers, as tender and more fair, | 10 | ···/·/˘··· |
| Are but torn love-letters, that through the skies | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| Flutter, and float, and change to Butterflies. | 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.