Prayer for France
O God! if France be still thy guardian care,Oh! spare these mercenary combats, spare!The thrones that now are reared but to be broke;The rights we render, and anon revoke;The muddy stream of laws, ideas, needs,Flooding our social life as it proceeds;Opposing tribunes, even when seeming one--Soft, yielding plaster put in place of stone;Wave chasing wave in endless ebb and flow;War, darker still and deeper in its woe;One party fall'n, successor scarce preludes,Than, straight, new views their furious feuds;The great man's pressure on the poor for gold,Rumors uncertain, conflicts, crimes untold;Dark systems hatched in secret and in fear,Telling of hate and strife to every ear,That even to midnight sleep no peace is given,For murd'rous cannon through our streets are driven.
Words in this poem
- broke v. i.
- To transact business for another. Brome. [See Broker, and cf. Brook.]
- anon adv.
- Straightway; at once. [OE. anoon, anon, anan, lit., in one (moment), fr. AS. on in + an one. See On and One.]
- needs adv.
- Of necessity; necessarily; indispensably; -- often with must, and equivalent to of need. [Orig. gen. of need, used as an adverb. Cf. - wards.]
- flooding n.
- The filling or covering with water or other fluid; overflow; inundation; the filling anything to excess.
- scarce a.
- Not plentiful or abundant; in small quantity in proportion to the demand; not easily to be procured; rare; uncommon. [OE. scars, OF. escars, eschars, LL. scarpsus, for L. excerptus, p. p. of excerpere to pick out, and hence to contract, to shorten; ex (see Ex-) + carpere. See C]
- untold a.
- Not told; not related; not revealed; as, untold secrets.
- strife n.
- The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Prayer for France 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, Prayer for France, in Poems (1888), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8775, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hugo-poems/prayer-for-france.html, id L26755.
Form and metre
Prayer for France is 18 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 88%).
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 AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHII careA · spareA · brokeB · revokeB · needsC · proceedsC · oneD · stoneD · flowE · woeE · preludesF · feudsF · goldG · untoldG · fearH · earH · givenI · drivenI
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 |
|---|---|---|
| O God! if France be still thy guardian care, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Oh! spare these mercenary combats, spare! | 10 | ···/˘·˘˘/· |
| The thrones that now are reared but to be broke; | 10 | ·········· |
| The rights we render, and anon revoke; | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘/ |
| The muddy stream of laws, ideas, needs, | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘· |
| Flooding our social life as it proceeds; | 10 | /˘//˘···˘/ |
| Opposing tribunes, even when seeming one-- | 10 | ˘/˘/˘/·/˘· |
| Soft, yielding plaster put in place of stone; | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Wave chasing wave in endless ebb and flow; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| War, darker still and deeper in its woe; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| One party fall'n, successor scarce preludes, | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘·/· |
| Than, straight, new views their furious feuds; | 9 | ·····/˘˘· |
| The great man's pressure on the poor for gold, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Rumors uncertain, conflicts, crimes untold; | 10 | /˘˘/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Dark systems hatched in secret and in fear, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Telling of hate and strife to every ear, | 10 | /˘·····/˘· |
| That even to midnight sleep no peace is given, | 11 | ·/·/·····/˘ |
| For murd'rous cannon through our streets are driven. | 11 | ···/˘·/··/˘ |
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.