The Morning of Life
The mist of the morning is torn by the peaks,Old towers gleam white in the ray,And already the glory so joyously seeksThe lark that's saluting the day.
Then smile away, man, at the heavens so fair,Though, were you swept hence in the night,From your dark, lonely tomb the owlets would stareAt the sun rising newly as bright.
But out of earth's trammels your soul would have flownWhere glitters Eternity's stream,And you shall have waked 'midst pure glories unknown,As sunshine disperses a dream.
Words in this poem
- flown a.
- Flushed, inflated.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- sunshine n.
- The light of the sun, or the place where it shines; the direct rays of the sun, the place where they fall, or the warmth and light which they give.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Morning of Life 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 Morning of Life, in Poems (1888), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8775, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hugo-poems/the-morning-of-life.html, id L26706.
Form and metre
The Morning of Life is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is anapaestic common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
See other poems in anapaestic 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 peaksA · rayB · seeksA · dayB
- 2 ABAB fairA · nightB · stareA · brightB
- 3 ABAB flownA · streamB · unknownA · dreamB
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 anapaestic common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The mist of the morning is torn by the peaks, | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| Old towers gleam white in the ray, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And already the glory so joyously seeks | 11 | ·˘/˘·/˘···· |
| The lark that's saluting the day. | 8 | ···˘/˘·· |
| Then smile away, man, at the heavens so fair, | 11 | ··˘/···/˘·· |
| Though, were you swept hence in the night, | 8 | ········ |
| From your dark, lonely tomb the owlets would stare | 11 | ···/˘······ |
| At the sun rising newly as bright. | 9 | ···/˘/˘·· |
| But out of earth's trammels your soul would have flown | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| Where glitters Eternity's stream, | 8 | ·/˘˘/˘˘· |
| And you shall have waked 'midst pure glories unknown, | 11 | ·······/˘˘/ |
| As sunshine disperses a dream. | 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.