Old Ocean
I stood by the waves, while the stars soared in sight,Not a cloud specked the sky, not a sail shimmered bright;Scenes beyond this dim world were revealed to mine eye;And the woods, and the hills, and all nature around,Seem'd to question with moody, mysterious sound,The waves, and the pure stars on high.And the clear constellations, that infinite throng,While thousand rich harmonies swelled in their song,Replying, bowed meekly their diamond-blaze--And the blue waves, which nothing may bind or arrest,Chorus'd forth, as they stooped the white foam of their crest"Creator! we bless thee and praise!"
Words in this poem
- meekly adv.
- In a meek manner.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Old Ocean 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, Old Ocean, in Poems (1888), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8775, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hugo-poems/old-ocean.html, id L26735.
Form and metre
Old Ocean is 12 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes AABCCBDDEFFE. The metre is anapaestic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
See other poems in anapaestic 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 AABCCBDDEFFE sightA · brightA · eyeB · aroundC · soundC · highB · throngD · songD · blazeE · arrestF · crestF · praiseE
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 anapaestic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I stood by the waves, while the stars soared in sight, | 12 | ·········˘·· |
| Not a cloud specked the sky, not a sail shimmered bright; | 12 | ·········/˘· |
| Scenes beyond this dim world were revealed to mine eye; | 12 | ·······˘/··· |
| And the woods, and the hills, and all nature around, | 12 | ········/˘·· |
| Seem'd to question with moody, mysterious sound, | 12 | ··/˘·/˘˘/˘˘· |
| The waves, and the pure stars on high. | 8 | ········ |
| And the clear constellations, that infinite throng, | 12 | ····˘/˘·/˘˘· |
| While thousand rich harmonies swelled in their song, | 12 | ·/˘·/˘˘·˘··· |
| Replying, bowed meekly their diamond-blaze-- | 11 | ˘/˘·˘/˘·/˘· |
| And the blue waves, which nothing may bind or arrest, | 12 | ·····/˘···˘/ |
| Chorus'd forth, as they stooped the white foam of their crest | 12 | ············ |
| "Creator! we bless thee and praise!" | 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.