Mothers
See all the children gathered there,Their mother near; so young, so fair,An eider sister she might be,And yet she hears, amid their games,The shaking of their unknown namesIn the dark urn of destiny.
She wakes their smiles, she soothes their cares,On that pure heart so like to theirs,Her spirit with such life is rifeThat in its golden rays we see,Touched into graceful poesy,The dull cold commonplace of life.
Still following, watching, whether burnThe Christmas log in winter stern,While merry plays go round;Or streamlets laugh to breeze of MayThat shakes the leaf to break away--A shadow falling to the ground.
If some poor man with hungry eyesHer baby's coral bauble spies,She marks his look with famine wild,For Christ's dear sake she makes with joyAn alms-gift of the silver toy--A smiling angel of the child.
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]
- rife a.
- Prevailing; prevalent; abounding. [AS. rif abundant, or Icel. rifr munificent; akin to OD. riff, rijve, abundant.]
- poesy n.
- The art of composing poems; poetical skill or faculty; as, the heavenly gift of poesy. [F. poésie (cf. It. poesia), L. poesis, from Gr. Posy.]
- bauble n.
- A trifling piece of finery; a gewgaw; that which is gay and showy without real value; a cheap, showy plaything. [Cf. OF. baubel a child's plaything, F. babiole, It. babbola, LL. baubellum gem, jewel, L. babulus,a baburrus, foolish.]
- famine n.
- General scarcity of food; dearth; a want of provisions; destitution. [F. famine, fr. L. fames hunger; cf. Gr. hani loss, lack, ha to leave.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Mothers 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, Mothers, in Poems (1888), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8775, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hugo-poems/mothers.html, id L26770.
Form and metre
Mothers is 24 lines in 4 stanzas of 6 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABCCB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
See 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 AABCCB thereA · fairA · beB · gamesC · namesC · destinyB
- 2 AABCCB caresA · theirsA · rifeB · seeC · poesyC · lifeB
- 3 AABCCB burnA · sternA · roundB · mayC · awayC · groundB
- 4 AABCCB eyesA · spiesA · wildB · joyC · toyC · 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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| See all the children gathered there, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Their mother near; so young, so fair, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| An eider sister she might be, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| And yet she hears, amid their games, | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| The shaking of their unknown names | 8 | ·/˘··˘/· |
| In the dark urn of destiny. | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| She wakes their smiles, she soothes their cares, | 8 | ········ |
| On that pure heart so like to theirs, | 8 | ········ |
| Her spirit with such life is rife | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| That in its golden rays we see, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Touched into graceful poesy, | 8 | ···/˘/˘˘ |
| The dull cold commonplace of life. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Still following, watching, whether burn | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| The Christmas log in winter stern, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| While merry plays go round; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Or streamlets laugh to breeze of May | 8 | ········ |
| That shakes the leaf to break away-- | 8 | ······˘/ |
| A shadow falling to the ground. | 8 | ·/·/˘··· |
| If some poor man with hungry eyes | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Her baby's coral bauble spies, | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| She marks his look with famine wild, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| For Christ's dear sake she makes with joy | 8 | ········ |
| An alms-gift of the silver toy-- | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| A smiling angel of the child. | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
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.