Then, Most I Smile
Late it is to look so proud,Daisy queen! come is the gloomOf the winter-burdened cloud!--"But, in winter, most I bloom!"
Star of even! sunk the sun!Lost for e'er the ruddy line;And the earth is veiled in dun,--"Nay, in darkness, best I shine!"
O, my soul! art 'bove alarm,Quaffing thus the cup of gall--Canst thou face the grave with calm?--"Yes, the Christians smile at all."
Words in this poem
- veiled a.
- Covered by, or as by, a veil; hidden.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Then, Most I Smile 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, Then, Most I Smile, in Poems (1888), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8775, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hugo-poems/then-most-i-smile.html, id L26850.
Form and metre
Then, Most I Smile is 12 lines in 3 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 proudA · gloomB · cloudA · bloomB
- 2 ABAB sunA · lineB · dunA · shineB
- 3 ABAB alarmA · gallB · calmA · allB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Late it is to look so proud, | 7 | ······· |
| Daisy queen! come is the gloom | 7 | /˘····· |
| Of the winter-burdened cloud!-- | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| "But, in winter, most I bloom!" | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Star of even! sunk the sun! | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Lost for e'er the ruddy line; | 7 | ····/˘· |
| And the earth is veiled in dun,-- | 7 | ······· |
| "Nay, in darkness, best I shine!" | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| O, my soul! art 'bove alarm, | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| Quaffing thus the cup of gall-- | 7 | ······· |
| Canst thou face the grave with calm?-- | 7 | ······· |
| "Yes, the Christians smile at all." | 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.