Analysis of Les stalactites

Rene Francois Armand Prudhomme 1839 (Paris) – 1907 (Châtenay-Malabry)



J'aime les grottes où la torche
Ensanglante une épaisse nuit,
Où l'écho fait, de porche en porche,
Un grand soupir du moindre bruit.

Les stalactites à la voûte
Pendent en pleurs pétrifiés
Dont l'humidité, goutte à goutte,
Tombe lentement à mes pieds.

Il me semble qu'en ces ténèbres
Règne une douloureuse paix ;
Et devant ces longs pleurs funèbres
Suspendus sans sécher jamais,

Je pense aux âmes affligées
Où dorment d'anciennes amours :
Toutes les larmes sont figées,
Quelque chose y pleure toujours.


Scheme ABAB BCBC CCCC CCCC
Poetic Form Quatrain 
Metre 1111111 1111 11111111 111111 11111 111111 1111 1111 111111111 11111 1111111 11111 111111 1111 111111 11111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 514
Words 83
Sentences 4
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 24
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 96
Words per stanza (avg) 21
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

26 sec read
76

Rene Francois Armand Prudhomme

René François Armand (Sully) Prudhomme was a French poet and essayist.  more…

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