The Preceptor
A gruesome man, bald, clad in black,Who kept us youthful drudges in the track,Thinking it good for them to leave home care,And for a while a harsher yoke to bear;Surrender all the careless ease of home,And be forbid from schoolyard bounds to roam;For this with blandest smiles he softly asksThat they with him will prosecute their tasks;Receives them in his solemn chilly lair,The rigid lot of discipline to share.At dingy desks they toil by day; at nightTo gloomy chambers go uncheered by light,Where pillars rudely grayed by rusty nailOf heavy hours reveal the weary tale;Where spiteful ushers grin, all pleased to makeLong scribbled lines the price of each mistake.By four unpitying walls environed thereThe homesick students pace the pavements bare.
Words in this poem
- gruesome
- , Grue"some, a. Etym: [From a word akin to Dan. gru horror, terror + -some; cf. D. gruwzaam, G. grausam. Cf. Grisly.]
- clad v.
- To clothe. Holland.
- lair n.
- A place in which to lie or rest; especially, the bed or couch of a wild beast. [OE. leir, AS. leger; akin to D. leger, G. lager couch, lair, OHG. laga, Goth. ligrs, and to E. lie. See Lie to be prostrate, and cf. Layer, Leaguer.]
- grin n.
- A snare; a gin. [AS. grin.]
- homesick a.
- Pining for home; in a nostalgic condition.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Preceptor 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 Preceptor, in Poems (1888), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8775, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hugo-poems/the-preceptor.html, id L26783.
Form and metre
The Preceptor is 18 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%).
See other poems in heroic couplets, other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 AABBCCDDBBEEFFGGBB blackA · trackA · careB · bearB · homeC · roamC · asksD · tasksD · lairB · shareB · nightE · lightE · nailF · taleF · makeG · mistakeG · thereB · bareB
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| A gruesome man, bald, clad in black, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Who kept us youthful drudges in the track, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Thinking it good for them to leave home care, | 10 | /˘········ |
| And for a while a harsher yoke to bear; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Surrender all the careless ease of home, | 10 | ˘/˘··/˘··· |
| And be forbid from schoolyard bounds to roam; | 10 | ··˘/·/···· |
| For this with blandest smiles he softly asks | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| That they with him will prosecute their tasks; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Receives them in his solemn chilly lair, | 10 | ˘/···/˘/˘· |
| The rigid lot of discipline to share. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘˘·· |
| At dingy desks they toil by day; at night | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| To gloomy chambers go uncheered by light, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Where pillars rudely grayed by rusty nail | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Of heavy hours reveal the weary tale; | 10 | ·/˘/˘/·/˘· |
| Where spiteful ushers grin, all pleased to make | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Long scribbled lines the price of each mistake. | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| By four unpitying walls environed there | 10 | ·········· |
| The homesick students pace the pavements bare. | 10 | ·/·/˘··/˘· |
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.