Satire on the Earth
A clod with rugged, meagre, rust-stained, weather-worried face,Where care-filled creatures tug and delve to keep a worthless race;And glean, begrudgedly, by all their unremitting toil,Sour, scanty bread and fevered water from the ungrateful soil;Made harder by their gloom than flints that gash their harried hands,And harder in the things they call their hearts than wolfish bands,Perpetuating faults, inventing crimes for paltry ends,And yet, perversest beings! hating Death, their best of friends!Pride in the powerful no more, no less than in the poor;Hatred in both their bosoms; love in one, or, wondrous! two!Fog in the valleys; on the mountains snowfields, ever new,That only melt to send down waters for the liquid hell,In which, their strongest sons and fairest daughters vilely fell!No marvel, Justice, Modesty dwell far apart and high,Where they can feebly hear, and, rarer, answer victims' cry.At both extremes, unflinching frost, the centre scorching hot;Land storms that strip the orchards nude, leave beaten grain to rot;Oceans that rise with sudden force to wash the bloody land,Where War, amid sob-drowning cheers, claps weapons in each hand.And this to those who, luckily, abide afar--This is, ha! ha! a star!
Words in this poem
- clod n.
- A lump or mass, especially of earth, turf, or clay. [OE. clodde, latter form of clot. See Clot.]
- meagre a.
- Destitue of, or having little, flesh; lean. [OE. merge, F. maigre, L. macer; akin to D. & G. mager, Icel. magr, and prob. to Gr. Emaciate, Maigre.]
- glean n.
- Cleaning; afterbirth. Holland.
- ungrateful a.
- Not grateful; not thankful for favors; making no returns, or making ill return for kindness, attention, etc.; ingrateful. South.
- wolfish a.
- Like a wolf; having the qualities or form of a wolf; as, a wolfish visage; wolfish designs.
- wondrous adv.
- In a wonderful or surprising manner or degree; wonderfully. [OE. wonders, adv. (later also adj.). See Wonder, n., and cf. -wards.]
- dwell v. i.
- To delay; to linger. [OE. dwellen, dwelien, to err, linger, AS. dwellan to deceive, hinder, delay, dwelian to err; akin to Icel. dvelja to delay, tarry, Sw. dväljas to dwell, Dan. dv]
- unflinching a.
- Not flinching or shrinking; unyielding.
- centre v. i.
- To be placed in a center; to be central.
- scorching a.
- Burning; parching or shriveling with heat.
- amid prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
- claps v. t.
- Variant of Clasp
- luckily adv.
- In a lucky manner; by good fortune; fortunately; -- used in a good sense; as, they luckily escaped injury. [From Lucky.]
- afar adv.
- At, to, or from a great distance; far away; -- often used with from preceding, or off following; as, he was seen from afar; I saw him afar off. [Pref. a-.(for on or of) + far.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Satire on the Earth 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, Satire on the Earth, in Poems (1888), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8775, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hugo-poems/satire-on-the-earth.html, id L26810.
Form and metre
Satire on the Earth is 21 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 57% of the lines. The metre is iambic heptameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in iambic heptameter.
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 AABBCCDD-EEFFGGHHIIJJ faceA · raceA · toilB · soilB · handsC · bandsC · endsD · friendsD · poor · twoE · newE · hellF · fellF · highG · cryG · hotH · rotH · landI · handI · afarJ · starJ
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 heptameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| A clod with rugged, meagre, rust-stained, weather-worried face, | 14 | ···/˘/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Where care-filled creatures tug and delve to keep a worthless race; | 14 | ···/˘······/˘· |
| And glean, begrudgedly, by all their unremitting toil, | 14 | ··········˘/˘· |
| Sour, scanty bread and fevered water from the ungrateful soil; | 15 | //˘··/˘/˘··˘/˘· |
| Made harder by their gloom than flints that gash their harried hands, | 14 | ·/˘········/˘· |
| And harder in the things they call their hearts than wolfish bands, | 14 | ·/˘········/˘· |
| Perpetuating faults, inventing crimes for paltry ends, | 14 | ˘/˘·˘·˘/˘··/˘· |
| And yet, perversest beings! hating Death, their best of friends! | 14 | ··˘/˘/˘/˘····· |
| Pride in the powerful no more, no less than in the poor; | 14 | ···/˘˘········ |
| Hatred in both their bosoms; love in one, or, wondrous! two! | 14 | /˘···/˘····/˘· |
| Fog in the valleys; on the mountains snowfields, ever new, | 14 | ···/˘··/˘··/˘· |
| That only melt to send down waters for the liquid hell, | 14 | ·/˘····/˘··/˘· |
| In which, their strongest sons and fairest daughters vilely fell! | 15 | ···/˘··/˘/˘···· |
| No marvel, Justice, Modesty dwell far apart and high, | 14 | ·/˘/˘/˘˘··˘/·· |
| Where they can feebly hear, and, rarer, answer victims' cry. | 14 | ···/˘··/˘/˘/˘· |
| At both extremes, unflinching frost, the centre scorching hot; | 14 | ··˘/˘/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Land storms that strip the orchards nude, leave beaten grain to rot; | 14 | ·····/˘··/˘··· |
| Oceans that rise with sudden force to wash the bloody land, | 14 | /˘···/˘····/˘· |
| Where War, amid sob-drowning cheers, claps weapons in each hand. | 14 | ··˘/·/˘··/˘··· |
| And this to those who, luckily, abide afar-- | 12 | ·····/˘˘˘/˘/ |
| This is, ha! ha! a star! | 6 | ······ |
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