St. John
One day, the sombre soul, the Prophet most sublimeAt Patmos who aye dreamed,And tremblingly perused, without the vast of Time,Words that with hell-fire gleamed,
Said to his eagle: "Bird, spread wings for loftiest flight--Needs must I see His Face!"The eagle soared. At length, far beyond day and night,Lo! the all-sacred Place!
And John beheld the Way whereof no angel knowsThe name, nor there hath trod;And, lo! the Place fulfilled with shadow that aye glowsBecause of very God.
Words in this poem
- sombre n.
- Gloom; obscurity; duskiness; somberness.
- needs adv.
- Of necessity; necessarily; indispensably; -- often with must, and equivalent to of need. [Orig. gen. of need, used as an adverb. Cf. - wards.]
- whereof adv.
- Of which; of whom; formerly, also, with which; -- used relatively.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
St. John 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, St. John, in Poems (1888), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8775, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hugo-poems/st-john.html, id L26817.
Form and metre
St. John is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
See other poems in iambic hexameter.
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 ABAB sublimeA · dreamedB · timeA · gleamedB
- 2 ABAB flightA · faceB · nightA · placeB
- 3 ABAB knowsA · trodB · glowsA · godB
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 hexameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| One day, the sombre soul, the Prophet most sublime | 12 | ···/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| At Patmos who aye dreamed, | 6 | ······ |
| And tremblingly perused, without the vast of Time, | 12 | ····˘/······ |
| Words that with hell-fire gleamed, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Said to his eagle: "Bird, spread wings for loftiest flight-- | 12 | ···/˘······· |
| Needs must I see His Face!" | 6 | ······ |
| The eagle soared. At length, far beyond day and night, | 12 | ·/˘········· |
| Lo! the all-sacred Place! | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And John beheld the Way whereof no angel knows | 12 | ··˘/·····/˘· |
| The name, nor there hath trod; | 6 | ······ |
| And, lo! the Place fulfilled with shadow that aye glows | 12 | ····˘/·/···· |
| Because of very God. | 6 | ···/˘· |
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.