No Assassination
Pray Rome put up her poniard!And Sparta sheathe the sword;Be none too prompt to punish,And cast indignant word!Bear back your spectral BrutusFrom robber Bonaparte;Time rarely will refute usWho doom the hateful heart.
Ye shall be o'ercontented,My banished mates from home,But be no rashness ventedEre time for joy shall come.No crime can outspeed Justice,Who, resting, seems delayed--Full faith accord the angelWho points the patient blade.
The traitor still may nestleIn balmy bed of state,But mark the Warder, watchingHis guardsman at his gate.He wears the crown, a monarch--Of knaves and stony hearts;But though they're blessed by Senates,None can escape the darts!
Though shored by spear and crozier,All know the arrant cheat,And shun the square of pavementUncertain at his feet!Yea, spare the wretch, each broodingAnd secret-leaguers' chief,And make no pistol-targetOf stars upon the thief.
The knell of God strikes seldomBut in the aptest hour;And when the life is sweetest,The worm will feel His power!
Words in this poem
- indignant a.
- Affected with indignation; wrathful; passionate; irate; feeling wrath, as when a person is exasperated by unworthy or unjust treatment, by a mean action, or by a degrading accusation. [L. indignans, -antis, p. pr. of indignari to be indignant, disdain. See Indign.]
- hateful a.
- Manifesting hate or hatred; malignant; malevolent.
- 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,]
- rashness n.
- The quality of state of being rash.
- outspeed v. t.
- To excel in speed.
- nestle v. i.
- To make and occupy a nest; to nest. [AS. nestlian.]
- balmy a.
- Having the qualities of balm; odoriferous; aromatic; assuaging; soothing; refreshing; mild.
- warder n.
- One who wards or keeps; a keeper; a guard.
- guardsman n.
- One who guards; a guard.
- arrant a.
- Notoriously or preëminently bad; thorough or downright, in a bad sense; shameless; unmitigated; as, an arrant rogue or coward. [OE. erraunt, errant, errand, equiv. to E. errant wandering, which was first applied to vagabonds, as an errant rogue, an errant thief, and hence passed graduall]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
No Assassination 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, No Assassination, in Poems (1888), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8775, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hugo-poems/no-assassination.html, id L26799.
Form and metre
No Assassination is 36 lines in 5 stanzas. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 96%).
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
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 AA--BCBC poniardA · swordA · punish · word · brutusB · bonaparteC · usB · heartC
- 2 -ABA-B-B o'ercontented · homeA · ventedB · comeA · justice · delayedB · angel · bladeB
- 3 -A-A-B-B nestle · stateA · watching · gateA · monarch · heartsB · senates · dartsB
- 4 -A-A-BAB crozier · cheatA · pavement · feetA · brooding · chiefB · targetA · thiefB
- 5 -A-A seldom · hourA · sweetest · powerA
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Pray Rome put up her poniard! | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| And Sparta sheathe the sword; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Be none too prompt to punish, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| And cast indignant word! | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| Bear back your spectral Brutus | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| From robber Bonaparte; | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Time rarely will refute us | 7 | ·/˘·˘/· |
| Who doom the hateful heart. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Ye shall be o'ercontented, | 7 | ······· |
| My banished mates from home, | 7 | ·/˘˘··· |
| But be no rashness vented | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| Ere time for joy shall come. | 6 | ······ |
| No crime can outspeed Justice, | 7 | ···˘//˘ |
| Who, resting, seems delayed-- | 7 | ·/˘·˘/˘ |
| Full faith accord the angel | 7 | ··˘/·/˘ |
| Who points the patient blade. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| The traitor still may nestle | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| In balmy bed of state, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| But mark the Warder, watching | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| His guardsman at his gate. | 6 | ·/···· |
| He wears the crown, a monarch-- | 7 | ·····/· |
| Of knaves and stony hearts; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| But though they're blessed by Senates, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| None can escape the darts! | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| Though shored by spear and crozier, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| All know the arrant cheat, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And shun the square of pavement | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Uncertain at his feet! | 6 | ˘/˘··· |
| Yea, spare the wretch, each brooding | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| And secret-leaguers' chief, | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| And make no pistol-target | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| Of stars upon the thief. | 6 | ······ |
| The knell of God strikes seldom | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| But in the aptest hour; | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| And when the life is sweetest, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| The worm will feel His power! | 7 | ·····/˘ |
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.