The Children of the Poor
Take heed of this small child of earth;He is great: in him is God most high.Children before their fleshly birthAre lights in the blue sky.
In our brief bitter world of wrongThey come; God gives us them awhile.His speech is in their stammering tongue,And His forgiveness in their smile.
Their sweet light rests upon our eyes:Alas! their right to joy is plain.If they are hungry, ParadiseWeeps, and if cold, Heaven thrills with pain.
The want that saps their sinless flowerSpeaks judgment on Sin's ministers.Man holds an angel in his power.Ah! deep in Heaven what thunder stirs.
When God seeks out these tender things,Whom in the shadow where we keep,He sends them clothed about with wings,And finds them ragged babes that weep!
Words in this poem
- awhile adv.
- For a while; for some time; for a short time. [Adj. a + while time, interval.]
- sinless a.
- Free from sin. Piers Plowman.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Children of the Poor 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, The Children of the Poor, in Poems (1888), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8775, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hugo-poems/the-children-of-the-poor.html, id L26844.
Form and metre
The Children of the Poor is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%).
See other poems in common measure.
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 earthA · highB · birthA · skyB
- 2 ABAB wrongA · awhileB · tongueA · smileB
- 3 ABAB eyesA · plainB · paradiseA · painB
- 4 ABAB flowerA · ministersB · powerA · stirsB
- 5 ABAB thingsA · keepB · wingsA · weepB
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Take heed of this small child of earth; | 8 | ········ |
| He is great: in him is God most high. | 9 | ········· |
| Children before their fleshly birth | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| Are lights in the blue sky. | 6 | ······ |
| In our brief bitter world of wrong | 8 | ·/·/˘··· |
| They come; God gives us them awhile. | 8 | ······˘/ |
| His speech is in their stammering tongue, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And His forgiveness in their smile. | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| Their sweet light rests upon our eyes: | 8 | ······/· |
| Alas! their right to joy is plain. | 8 | ˘/······ |
| If they are hungry, Paradise | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Weeps, and if cold, Heaven thrills with pain. | 8 | ····/··· |
| The want that saps their sinless flower | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| Speaks judgment on Sin's ministers. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘˘ |
| Man holds an angel in his power. | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| Ah! deep in Heaven what thunder stirs. | 8 | ···/·/˘· |
| When God seeks out these tender things, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Whom in the shadow where we keep, | 8 | ···/···· |
| He sends them clothed about with wings, | 8 | ········ |
| And finds them ragged babes that weep! | 8 | ···/˘··· |
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.