Invocation
Say, Lord! for Thou alone canst tellWhere lurks the good invisibleAmid the depths of discord's sea--That seem, alas! so dark to me!Oppressive to a mighty state,Contentions, feuds, the people's hate--But who dare question that which fateHas ordered to have been?Haply the earthquake may unfoldThe resting-place of purest gold,And haply surges up have rolledThe pearls that were unseen!
Words in this poem
- amid prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
- haply adv.
- By hap, chance, luck, or accident; perhaps; it may be.
- unseen a.
- Not seen or discovered.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Invocation 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, Invocation, in Poems (1888), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8775, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hugo-poems/invocation.html, id L26753.
Form and metre
Invocation is 12 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 67% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, other poems in iambic 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 AABBCCC-DDD- tellA · invisibleA · seaB · meB · stateC · hateC · fateC · been · unfoldD · goldD · rolledD · unseen
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Say, Lord! for Thou alone canst tell | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| Where lurks the good invisible | 8 | ····˘/˘˘ |
| Amid the depths of discord's sea-- | 8 | ˘/···/˘· |
| That seem, alas! so dark to me! | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| Oppressive to a mighty state, | 8 | ˘/˘··/˘· |
| Contentions, feuds, the people's hate-- | 8 | ˘/˘··/˘· |
| But who dare question that which fate | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Has ordered to have been? | 7 | ·/˘˘··· |
| Haply the earthquake may unfold | 8 | /˘·/··˘/ |
| The resting-place of purest gold, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And haply surges up have rolled | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| The pearls that were unseen! | 6 | ····˘/ |
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.