The Seaman's Song
Farewell the strand,The sails expandAbove!Farewell the landWe love!Farewell, old home where apples swing!Farewell, gay song-birds on the wing!
Farewell, riff-raffOf Customs' clerks who laughAnd shout:"Farewell!" We'll quaffOne boutTo thee, young lass, with kisses sweet!Farewell, my dear--the ship flies fleet!
The fog shuts out the last fond peep,As 'neath the prow the cast drops weep.Farewell, old home, young lass, the bird!The whistling wind alone is heard:Farewell! Farewell!
Words in this poem
- quaff v. t.
- To drink with relish; to drink copiously of; to swallow in large draughts. [For quach, fr. Gael. & Ir. cuach a drinking cup; cf. L. caucus a drinking vessel. Cf. Quaigh.]
- lass n.
- A youth woman; a girl; a sweetheart. [OE. lasse; prob. of Celtic origin; cf. W. llodes girl, fem. of llawd lad. (Lad a youth.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Seaman's Song 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 Seaman's Song, in Poems (1888), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8775, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hugo-poems/the-seaman-s-song.html, id L26801.
Form and metre
The Seaman's Song is 19 lines in 3 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is AABABCC, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic pentameter.
See 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 AABABCC strandA · expandA · aboveB · landA · loveB · swingC · wingC
- 2 AABABCC raffA · laughA · shoutB · quaffA · boutB · sweetC · fleetC
- 3 AABB- peepA · weepA · birdB · heardB · farewell
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Farewell the strand, | 4 | ·/·· |
| The sails expand | 4 | ··˘/ |
| Above! | 2 | ·· |
| Farewell the land | 4 | ·/·· |
| We love! | 2 | ·· |
| Farewell, old home where apples swing! | 8 | ·/···/˘· |
| Farewell, gay song-birds on the wing! | 8 | ·/······ |
| Farewell, riff-raff | 4 | ·/·· |
| Of Customs' clerks who laugh | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And shout: | 2 | ·· |
| "Farewell!" We'll quaff | 4 | ·/·· |
| One bout | 2 | ·· |
| To thee, young lass, with kisses sweet! | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Farewell, my dear--the ship flies fleet! | 8 | ·/······ |
| The fog shuts out the last fond peep, | 8 | ········ |
| As 'neath the prow the cast drops weep. | 8 | ········ |
| Farewell, old home, young lass, the bird! | 8 | ·/······ |
| The whistling wind alone is heard: | 8 | ·/˘·˘/·· |
| Farewell! Farewell! | 4 | ·/·/ |
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.