Still Be a Child
In youthful spirits wild,Smile, for all beams on thee;Sport, sing, be still the child,The flower, the honey-bee.
Bring not the future near,For Joy too soon declines--What is man's mission here?Toil, where no sunlight shines!
Our lot is hard, we know;From eyes so gayly beaming,Whence rays of beauty flow,Salt tears most oft are streaming.
Free from emotions past,All joy and hope possessing,With mind in pureness cast,Sweet ignorance confessing.
Plant, safe from winds and showers,Heart with soft visions glowing,In childhood's happy hoursA mother's rapture showing.
Loved by each anxious friend,No carking care within--When summer gambols end,My winter sports begin.
Sweet poesy from heavenAround thy form is placed,A mother's beauty given,By father's thought is graced!
Seize, then, each blissful second,Live, for joy sinks in night,And those whose tale is reckoned,Have had their days of light.
Then, oh! before we part,The poet's blessing take,Ere bleeds that aged heart,Or child the woman make.
Words in this poem
- gayly adv.
- With mirth and frolic; merrily; blithely; gleefully.
- streaming a.
- Sending forth streams.
- pureness n.
- The state of being pure (in any sense of the adjective).
- carking a.
- Distressing; worrying; perplexing; corroding; as, carking cares.
- poesy n.
- The art of composing poems; poetical skill or faculty; as, the heavenly gift of poesy. [F. poésie (cf. It. poesia), L. poesis, from Gr. Posy.]
- graced a.
- Endowed with grace; beautiful; full of graces; honorable.
- blissful a.
- Full of, characterized by, or causing, joy and felicity; happy in the highest degree.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Still Be a Child 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, Still Be a Child, in Poems (1888), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8775, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hugo-poems/still-be-a-child.html, id L26779.
Form and metre
Still Be a Child is 36 lines in 9 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
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 wildA · theeB · childA · beeB
- 2 ABAB nearA · declinesB · hereA · shinesB
- 3 ABAB knowA · beamingB · flowA · streamingB
- 4 ABAB pastA · possessingB · castA · confessingB
- 5 ABAB showersA · glowingB · hoursA · showingB
- 6 ABAB friendA · withinB · endA · beginB
- 7 ABAB heavenA · placedB · givenA · gracedB
- 8 ABAB secondA · nightB · reckonedA · lightB
- 9 ABAB partA · takeB · heartA · makeB
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| In youthful spirits wild, | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Smile, for all beams on thee; | 6 | ······ |
| Sport, sing, be still the child, | 6 | ······ |
| The flower, the honey-bee. | 6 | ·/·/˘· |
| Bring not the future near, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| For Joy too soon declines-- | 6 | ····˘/ |
| What is man's mission here? | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Toil, where no sunlight shines! | 6 | ···/·· |
| Our lot is hard, we know; | 6 | /····· |
| From eyes so gayly beaming, | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| Whence rays of beauty flow, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Salt tears most oft are streaming. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Free from emotions past, | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| All joy and hope possessing, | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| With mind in pureness cast, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Sweet ignorance confessing. | 7 | ·/˘˘˘/˘ |
| Plant, safe from winds and showers, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Heart with soft visions glowing, | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| In childhood's happy hours | 7 | ·/·/˘/˘ |
| A mother's rapture showing. | 7 | ·/˘/˘/˘ |
| Loved by each anxious friend, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| No carking care within-- | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| When summer gambols end, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| My winter sports begin. | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| Sweet poesy from heaven | 7 | ·/˘˘·/˘ |
| Around thy form is placed, | 6 | ······ |
| A mother's beauty given, | 7 | ·/˘/˘/˘ |
| By father's thought is graced! | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Seize, then, each blissful second, | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| Live, for joy sinks in night, | 6 | ······ |
| And those whose tale is reckoned, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Have had their days of light. | 6 | ······ |
| Then, oh! before we part, | 6 | ······ |
| The poet's blessing take, | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Ere bleeds that aged heart, | 5 | ····· |
| Or child the woman make. | 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.