Critical Analysis of Sous Les Arbres Essay Sample free essay sample

Sous Les Arbres is the seventeenth verse form in the 2nd half of the book â€Å"L’ Ame en Fleur† . â€Å"L’ Ame en Fleur† is the 2nd book of Victor Hugo’s â€Å"Les Contemplations† . Sous Les Abres is the rubric of the 17th verse form while the verse forms which come straight before it and after aren’t titled. The verse form is 24 lines long. dwelling of 6 stanzas written in 4 line quatrains. It is written in Alexandrines arranged in â€Å"rime croisees† throughout the 6 quatrains. with an ABAB manner of rime. Hugo’s usage of the Caesura defies the common pattern of interrupting the Alexandrine line into two units of six syllables called a hemistich. alternatively utilizing the caesura at a much greater frequence throughout the verse form to make the effects of instability and dissymmetry while leting greater look and accent. The gap quatrain establishes the location of the verse form. The verse form takes topographic point in a wood. where a adult male and adult females profoundly in love are walking through look up toing the nature and universe around them. The season the verse form is set in is summer. a peculiarly romantic and suited scene for the verse form due to it’s heat and the beauty of nature as the surrounding universe is in full bloom. The gap quatrain sets the chief subjects of the verse form which are love and nature. Like many of Hugo’s verse forms. the gap stanzas set the subject and location of the verse form while he develops the actions of the verse form from 3rd stanza onwards. The 3rd stanza further emphasises the subject of nature in the beginning of the stanza while the concluding lines brings the verse form back to the subject of love. In the 4th stanza. she tells him of her love for him. The 5th stanza combines the subjects of love and nature into one. During the 6th stanza as dark falls she establishes her full trueness to him through her love utilizing the metaphor of a C anis familiaris. The verse form opens with a one sentence stanza ( lines 1-4 ) written in an Alexandrine with the caesura holding an irregular signifier. The caesurae look seven times throughout the stanza alternatively of the regular four. The gap three lines all contain an irregular arrangement of the caesura. while the concluding line is a classical Alexandrine. The 2nd line locates the twosome. in a placid wood being disturbed by the dances. In this line. the dances are a metaphor for the air current fomenting the otherwise still trees. The stanza has a comparatively positive tone. although their actions such as walking and speech production are interrupted by halting â€Å"S’arretaient† â€Å"S’interrompaient† this does non consequence their apprehension of each other. Hugo uses initial rhyme to emphasis the four verbs through the repeat of the â€Å"r† in either the first or 2nd syllable of the verbs. In the last line. their souls rustle is a metaphor for the twosome holding a deep apprehension of each other. even in minutes where they do non physically pass on. The 2nd stanza opens with the usage of metonymy and personification. The metonymy being the 2 Black Marias â€Å"ces deux coeurs† stand foring the twosome while the personification occurs in the signifier of the smiling creative activity â€Å"la creative activity gold sourire innocent† . Hugo once more uses the caesura in irregular arrangements throughout the stanza maintaining the metre the same but the beat varied. To put accent on the verbs Hugo places the caesura after the bulk of the verbs within the stanza. In this stanza. the subject of love is matched to the subject of nature as the twosome go one with nature â€Å"Disaient a chaque fleur quelque chose† . This stanza exhibits an equivocal tone as it features both positive and negative imagination such as the positive smile creative activity and the beads into the shadows. a word synonymous with negativeness. darkness and the unknown. The 3rd stanza differs from the 2 old stanzas in that there is no usage of the caesura. Alternatively Hugo uses enjambment leting the first line run onto the 2nd line without punctuation to divide the two. Rime riche can be seen in the 3rd stanza through the rhyming of the words â€Å"Corbeille† and â€Å"Abeille† in the first and 3rd lines of the stanza. In the 2nd line we see the personification of summer as it brings her flowers. felicity and beautiful yearss. This ties in the subjects of nature and felicity. Hugo uses the simile of a bee to depict her love for the flowers and her naming of the flowers. As a bee would closely cognize the environing flowers due to it’s necessity for nutriment. she knows the environing flowers due to her demand of nature. Hugo interrupts this word picture of the environing nature by her petition to talk about their love in the concluding line. The gap line of the 4th stanza is per usual an Alexandrine but the citation marks break the line into three subdivisions of four syllables with the caesura puting accent on the terminal of each four syllable period. Hugo uses the caesura here to underscore her love for him â€Å"Je suis nut haut. je suis en bas† . Her observation over him from both above and below him is an image for her love being like a protective spirit such as a guardian angel excuse the cliche . The male’s response is weak in comparing. inquiring the names of the surrounding workss after such a important spring by his lover. Hugo uses Rime Faible in this stanza as a suited method of rime for the males dissatisfactory and thin response. In comparing to his dissatisfactory response in the 4th stanza the first two lines of the 5th stanza are wholly different. Again the subjects of nature and love combine â€Å"il savourait Ces fleurs et cette femme. † In the first two lines we see the vowel rhyme of the â€Å"o† sound â€Å"O title-holder! † â€Å"O bois! † â€Å"o pres! † and besides the ou sound â€Å"il savourait† â€Å"ou tout† . The â€Å"o† vowel rhyme here underscoring locations within nature while the â€Å"ou† vowel rhyme underscoring the more human facet of the stanza. his tasting of nature piecing into one. Hugo inverts the concluding two lines to underscore the significance of the adult female to the adult male. Using the aroma of the flowers as a word picture of his psyche. while the woman’s psyche is his ain great aroma. As they are in love and the adult male has portion of the woman’s psyche. the great aroma is a metaphor for t he adult female being a great add-on to his being. The concluding stanza closes the verse form as dark is falling around the twosome. In the first line there is the initial rhyme of the â€Å"n† sound â€Å"nuit† â€Å"tronc† â€Å"chene† â€Å"noir† . The vowel rhyme of the â€Å"n† sound joins together the darkness of twilight and that of the black oak tree they are lean backing on. Hugo uses two similes in the concluding stanza. the star and the Canis familiaris. She says to her lover that her supplication is ever in the sky like a star â€Å"Ma priere toujours dans vos ciuex comme un astre† and that her love like a Canis familiaris will ever be at his pess â€Å"Et mon affair toujours comme un chien a tes pieds† . The star and the Canis familiaris can besides be considered symbols. The star being a symbol for counsel. stars being used for pilotage during darkness. While the Canis familiaris is a symbol for trueness. a cliched term but true being that â€Å"dog is manâ€℠¢s best friend† . continually loyal to their proprietor. Hugo uses rime riche in the concluding stanza as the terminal of the verse form exceeds the reader’s initial outlooks of such an spring of emotion. As demonstrated it is clear the verse form is centred on the subject of love with the subject of nature used to a great extent to congratulate this subject. The chief action taking topographic point in the verse form is the couples’ walk through the wood as they admire the encompassing universe while besides discoursing their feelings for each other. As Hugo didn’t day of the month the verse form other than it being written in June some twelvemonth during the nineteenth century it can’t be clearly associated with a certain happening in his life but as the book â€Å"L’Ame nut fluer† is based upon his relationship with his kept woman Juliette Drouet so it can be assumed the verse form is live overing a walk they shared. the verse form hence being a hapless false belief. â€Å"Sous Les Arbres† fits in good with the remainder of â€Å"L’Ame en fluer† due to it’s subjects of Love and Nature. Like much of his work Hugo uses ir regular beat throughout the verse form due to the displaced caesura. The techniques Hugo utilizations combined with the subjects of love and nature make this verse form a really good illustration of Hugo’s romantic poetics overall as it is typical to much of his work within â€Å"Les contemplations† .