Poland
Alone, beneath the tower whence thunder forthThe mandates of the Tyrant of the North,Poland's sad genius kneels, absorbed in tears,Bound, vanquished, pallid with her fears--Alas! the crucifix is all that's leftTo her, of freedom and her sons bereft;And on her royal robe foul marks are seenWhere Russian hectors' scornful feet have been.Anon she hears the clank of murd'rous arms,--The swordsmen come once more to spread alarms!And while she weeps against the prison walls,And waves her bleeding arm until it falls,To France she hopeless turns her glazing eyes,And sues her sister's succor ere she dies.
Words in this poem
- crucifix n.
- A representation in art of the figure of Christ upon the cross; esp., the sculptured figure affixed to a real cross of wood, ivory, metal, or the like, used by the Roman Catholics in their devotions. [F. crucifix or LL. crucifixum, fr. L. crux, crucis, cross + figere, fixum, to fix. See Cross, and Fix, and cf. Crucify.]
- anon adv.
- Straightway; at once. [OE. anoon, anon, anan, lit., in one (moment), fr. AS. on in + an one. See On and One.]
- clank n.
- A sharp, brief, ringing sound, made by a collision of metallic or other sonorous bodies; -- usually expressing a duller or less resounding sound than clang, and a deeper and stronger sound than clink. [Akin to clink, and of imitative origin; cf. G. klang sound, D. klank. Cf. Clang.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Poland 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, Poland, in Poems (1888), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8775, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hugo-poems/poland.html, id L26757.
Form and metre
Poland is 14 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
See other poems in heroic couplets, 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 AABBCCDDEEFFGG forthA · northA · tearsB · fearsB · leftC · bereftC · seenD · beenD · armsE · alarmsE · wallsF · fallsF · eyesG · diesG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Alone, beneath the tower whence thunder forth | 10 | ˘/···/·/˘· |
| The mandates of the Tyrant of the North, | 10 | ·/···/˘··· |
| Poland's sad genius kneels, absorbed in tears, | 10 | /˘·/˘·˘/·· |
| Bound, vanquished, pallid with her fears-- | 9 | ·/˘˘/˘··· |
| Alas! the crucifix is all that's left | 10 | ˘/·/˘····· |
| To her, of freedom and her sons bereft; | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| And on her royal robe foul marks are seen | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Where Russian hectors' scornful feet have been. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Anon she hears the clank of murd'rous arms,-- | 10 | ˘/········ |
| The swordsmen come once more to spread alarms! | 10 | ········˘/ |
| And while she weeps against the prison walls, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And waves her bleeding arm until it falls, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| To France she hopeless turns her glazing eyes, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| And sues her sister's succor ere she dies. | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
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.