Napoleon "The Little"
How well I knew this stealthy wolf would howl,When in the eagle talons ta'en in air!Aglow, I snatched thee from thy prey--thou fowl--I held thee, abject conqueror, just whereAll see the stigma of a fitting nameAs deeply red as deeply black thy shame!And though thy matchless impudence may frameSome mask of seeming courage--spite thy sneer,And thou assurest sloth and skunk: "It does not smart!"Thou feel'st it burning, in and in,--and fearNone will forget it till shall fall the deadly dart!
Words in this poem
- aglow adv.
- In a glow; glowing; as, cheeks aglow; the landscape all aglow. [Pref. a- + glow.]
- abject a.
- Cast down; low-lying. [L. abjectus, p. p. of abjicere to throw away; ab + jacere to throw. See Jet a shooting forth.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Napoleon "The Little" 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, Napoleon "The Little", in Poems (1888), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8775, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hugo-poems/napoleon-the-little.html, id L26796.
Form and metre
Napoleon "The Little" is 11 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCCCDEDE. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%).
See 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 ABABCCCDEDE howlA · airB · fowlA · whereB · nameC · shameC · frameC · sneerD · smartE · fearD · dartE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| How well I knew this stealthy wolf would howl, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| When in the eagle talons ta'en in air! | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Aglow, I snatched thee from thy prey--thou fowl-- | 10 | ˘/········ |
| I held thee, abject conqueror, just where | 10 | ···/˘/˘˘·· |
| All see the stigma of a fitting name | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| As deeply red as deeply black thy shame! | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| And though thy matchless impudence may frame | 10 | ···/˘/˘˘·· |
| Some mask of seeming courage--spite thy sneer, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| And thou assurest sloth and skunk: "It does not smart!" | 12 | ··˘/˘······· |
| Thou feel'st it burning, in and in,--and fear | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| None will forget it till shall fall the deadly dart! | 12 | ··˘/·····/˘· |
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.