Toys and Tragedy
In later years, they'll tell you grandpapaAdored his little darlings; for them didHis utmost just to pleasure them and marNo moments with a frown or growl amidTheir rosy rompings; that he loved them so(Though men have called him bitter, cold, and stern,)That in the famous winter when the snowCovered poor Paris, he went, old and worn,To buy them dolls, despite the falling shells,At which laughed Punch, and they, and shook his bells.
Words in this poem
- amid prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- shook v. t.
- To pack, as staves, in a shook.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Toys and Tragedy 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, Toys and Tragedy, in Poems (1888), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8775, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hugo-poems/toys-and-tragedy.html, id L26838.
Form and metre
Toys and Tragedy is 10 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%).
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 -A-AB-B-CC grandpapa · didA · mar · amidA · soB · stern · snowB · worn · shellsC · bellsC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| In later years, they'll tell you grandpapa | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Adored his little darlings; for them did | 10 | ˘/·/˘/˘··· |
| His utmost just to pleasure them and mar | 10 | ·/···/˘··· |
| No moments with a frown or growl amid | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| Their rosy rompings; that he loved them so | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| (Though men have called him bitter, cold, and stern,) | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| That in the famous winter when the snow | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Covered poor Paris, he went, old and worn, | 10 | /˘·/˘····· |
| To buy them dolls, despite the falling shells, | 10 | ····˘/·/˘· |
| At which laughed Punch, and they, and shook his bells. | 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.