Shooting Stars
See the scintillating shower!Like a burst from golden mine--Incandescent coals that pourFrom the incense-bowl divine,And around us dewdrops, shaken,Mirror each a twinkling ray'Twixt the flowers that awakenIn this glory great as day.Mists and fogs all vanish fleetly;And the birds begin to sing,Whilst the rain is murm'ring sweetlyAs if angels echoing.And, methinks, to show she's gratefulFor this seed from heaven come,Earth is holding up a platefulOf the birds and buds a-bloom!
Words in this poem
- twinkling n.
- The act of one who, or of that which, twinkles; a quick movement of the eye; a wink; a twinkle. Holland.
- fleetly adv.
- In a fleet manner; rapidly.
- methinks v.
- It seems to me; I think. See Me. [AS. þyncan to seem, me þynceedh, me þuhte, OE. me thinketh, me thoughte; akin to G. dünken to seem, denken to think, and E. think. See Me, and Think.]
- plateful n.
- Enough to fill a plate; as much as a plate will hold.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Shooting Stars 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, Shooting Stars, in Poems (1888), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8775, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hugo-poems/shooting-stars.html, id L26834.
Form and metre
Shooting Stars is 16 lines in a single stanza. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
See other poems in trochaic 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 -A-ABCBCDEDEF-F- shower · mineA · pour · divineA · shakenB · rayC · awakenB · dayC · fleetlyD · singE · sweetlyD · echoingE · gratefulF · come · platefulF · bloom
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| See the scintillating shower! | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Like a burst from golden mine-- | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Incandescent coals that pour | 7 | ·˘/˘··· |
| From the incense-bowl divine, | 7 | ··/··˘/ |
| And around us dewdrops, shaken, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Mirror each a twinkling ray | 8 | /˘··/˘˘· |
| 'Twixt the flowers that awaken | 8 | ··/˘·˘/˘ |
| In this glory great as day. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Mists and fogs all vanish fleetly; | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| And the birds begin to sing, | 7 | ···˘/·· |
| Whilst the rain is murm'ring sweetly | 8 | ······/˘ |
| As if angels echoing. | 7 | ··/˘/˘˘ |
| And, methinks, to show she's grateful | 8 | ·˘/···/˘ |
| For this seed from heaven come, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Earth is holding up a plateful | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Of the birds and buds a-bloom! | 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.