Inscription for a Crucifix
Ye weepers, the Mourner o'er mourners behold!Ye wounded, come hither--the Healer enfold!Ye gloomy ones, brighten 'neath smiles quelling care--Or pass--for this Comfort is found ev'rywhere.
Words in this poem
- mourner n.
- One who mourns or is grieved at any misfortune, as the death of a friend.
- healer n.
- One who, or that which, heals.
- enfold v. t.
- To infold. See Infold.
- brighten v. t.
- To make bright or brighter; to make to shine; to increase the luster of; to give a brighter hue to.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Inscription for a Crucifix 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, Inscription for a Crucifix, in Poems (1888), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8775, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hugo-poems/inscription-for-a-crucifix.html, id L26813.
Form and metre
Inscription for a Crucifix is 4 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: heroic couplets. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic pentameter.
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 AABB beholdA · enfoldA · careB · ev'rywhereB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Ye weepers, the Mourner o'er mourners behold! | 11 | ····/˘·/˘˘/ |
| Ye wounded, come hither--the Healer enfold! | 11 | ·/˘·/˘·/˘˘/ |
| Ye gloomy ones, brighten 'neath smiles quelling care-- | 11 | ·/˘·/˘··/˘· |
| Or pass--for this Comfort is found ev'rywhere. | 11 | ····/˘····· |
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.