The Sower
Sitting in a porchway cool,Fades the ruddy sunlight fast,Twilight hastens on to rule--Working hours are wellnigh past
Shadows shoot across the lands;But one sower lingers still,Old, in rags, he patient stands,--Looking on, I feel a thrill.
Black and high his silhouetteDominates the furrows deep!Now to sow the task is set,Soon shall come a time to reap.
Marches he along the plain,To and fro, and scatters wideFrom his hands the precious grain;Moody, I, to see him stride.
Darkness deepens. Gone the light.Now his gestures to mine eyesAre august; and strange--his heightSeems to touch the starry skies.
Words in this poem
- sower n.
- One who, or that which, sows.
- silhouette n.
- A representation of the outlines of an object filled in with a black color; a profile portrait in black, such as a shadow appears to be. [F.; -- so called from Etienne de Silhoutte, a French minister of finance in 1759, whise diversion it was to make such portraits on the walls of his apartments.]
- 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,]
- reap n.
- A bundle of grain; a handful of grain laid down by the reaper as it is cut. Wright. [Cf. AS. rip harvest. See Reap, v.]
- stride v. t.
- To walk with long steps, especially in a measured or pompous manner. [AS. stridan to stride, to strive; akin to LG. striden, OFries. strida to strive, D. strijden to strive, to contend, G. streiten, OHG. stritan; of uncertain orig]
- starry a.
- Abounding with stars; adorned with stars.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Sower 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 Sower, in Poems (1888), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8775, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hugo-poems/the-sower.html, id L26857.
Form and metre
The Sower is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%).
See other poems in trochaic tetrameter.
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 coolA · fastB · ruleA · pastB
- 2 ABAB landsA · stillB · standsA · thrillB
- 3 ABAB silhouetteA · deepB · setA · reapB
- 4 ABAB plainA · wideB · grainA · strideB
- 5 ABAB lightA · eyesB · heightA · skiesB
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Sitting in a porchway cool, | 7 | /˘····· |
| Fades the ruddy sunlight fast, | 7 | ··/˘/·· |
| Twilight hastens on to rule-- | 7 | /·/˘··· |
| Working hours are wellnigh past | 7 | /˘/·/˘· |
| Shadows shoot across the lands; | 7 | /··˘/·· |
| But one sower lingers still, | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Old, in rags, he patient stands,-- | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Looking on, I feel a thrill. | 7 | /˘····· |
| Black and high his silhouette | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| Dominates the furrows deep! | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Now to sow the task is set, | 7 | ······· |
| Soon shall come a time to reap. | 7 | ······· |
| Marches he along the plain, | 7 | /˘·˘/·· |
| To and fro, and scatters wide | 7 | ····/˘· |
| From his hands the precious grain; | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Moody, I, to see him stride. | 7 | /˘····· |
| Darkness deepens. Gone the light. | 7 | /˘/˘··· |
| Now his gestures to mine eyes | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Are august; and strange--his height | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| Seems to touch the starry skies. | 7 | ····/˘· |
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.