La Grand-mère (the Grandmother) Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AB CCDEFDFFDEGEEGGDGGDG EGGEGGGGGDDDDDDGDDGH HGEEG D AD IDIIDDJDDJ EDEEDKEKKE KDKKDFLFFL MKMMKNKNNK FOFFOPDQQD R DFDDF| To die to sleep | A |
| Shakespeare | B |
| - | |
| Dors tu r veille toi m re de notre m re | C |
| Car ton sommeil souvent ressemble ta pri re | C |
| Mais ce soir on dirait la madone de pierre | D |
| Ta l vre est immobile et ton souffle est muet | E |
| Pourquoi courber ton front plus bas que de coutume | F |
| Quel mal avons nous fait pour ne plus nous ch rir | D |
| Vois la lampe p lit l' tre scintille et fume | F |
| Si tu ne parles pas le feu qui se consume | F |
| Et la lampe et nous deux nous allons tous mourir | D |
| Tu nous trouveras morts pr s de la lampe teinte | E |
| Alors que diras tu quand tu t' veilleras | G |
| Tes enfants leur tour seront sourds ta plainte | E |
| Pour nous rendre la vie en invoquant ta sainte | E |
| Il faudrait bien longtemps nous serrer dans tes bras | G |
| Donne nous donc tes mains dans nos mains r chauff es | G |
| Chante nous quelque chant de pauvre troubadour | D |
| Dis nous ces chevaliers qui servis par les f es | G |
| Pour bouquets leur dame apportaient des troph es | G |
| Et dont le cri de guerre tait un nom d'amour | D |
| Dis nous quel divin signe est funeste aux fant mes | G |
| Quel ermite dans l'air vit Lucifer volant | E |
| Quel rubis tincelle au front du roi des gnomes | G |
| Et si le noir d mon craint plus dans ses royaumes | G |
| Les psaumes de Turpin que le fer de Roland | E |
| Ou montre nous ta bible et les belles images | G |
| Le ciel d'or les saints bleus les saintes genoux | G |
| L'enfant J sus la cr che et le b uf et les mages | G |
| Fais nous lire du doigt dans le milieu des pages | G |
| Un peu de ce latin qui parle Dieu de nous | G |
| M re H las par degr s s'affaisse la lumi re | D |
| L'ombre joyeuse danse autour du noir foyer | D |
| Les esprits vont peut tre entrer dans la chaumi re | D |
| Oh sors de ton sommeil interromps ta pri re | D |
| Toi qui nous rassurais veux tu nous effrayer | D |
| Dieu que tes bras sont froids rouvre les yeux Nagu re | D |
| Tu nous parlais d'un monde o nous m nent nos pas | G |
| Et de ciel et de tombe et de vie ph m re | D |
| Tu parlais de la mort dis nous notre m re | D |
| Qu'est ce donc que la mort Tu ne nous r ponds pas | G |
| Leur g missante voix longtemps se plaignit seule | H |
| La jeune aube parut sans r veiller l'a eule | H |
| La cloche frappa l'air de ses fun bres coups | G |
| Et le soir un passant par la porte entrouverte | E |
| Vit devant le saint livre et la couche d serte | E |
| Les deux petits enfants qui priaient genoux | G |
| - | |
| - | |
| The Grandmother | D |
| - | |
| - | |
| To die to sleep | A |
| Shakespeare | D |
| - | |
| Still asleep We have been since the noon thus alone | I |
| Oh the hours we have ceased to number | D |
| Wake grandmother speechless say why thou art grown | I |
| Then thy lips are so cold The Madonna of stone | I |
| Is like thee in thy holy slumber | D |
| We have watched thee in sleep we have watched thee at prayer | D |
| But what can now betide thee | J |
| Like thy hours of repose all thy orisons were | D |
| And thy lips would still murmur a blessing whene'er | D |
| Thy children stood beside thee | J |
| - | |
| Now thine eye is unclosed and thy forehead is bent | E |
| O'er the hearth where ashes smoulder | D |
| And behold the watch lamp will be speedily spent | E |
| Art thou vexed have we done aught amiss Oh relent | E |
| But parent thy hands grow colder | D |
| Say with ours wilt thou let us rekindle in thine | K |
| The glow that has departed | E |
| Wilt thou sing us some song of the days of lang syne | K |
| Wilt thou tell us some tale from those volumes divine | K |
| Of the brave and noble hearted | E |
| - | |
| Of the dragon who crouching in forest green glen | K |
| Lies in wait for the unwary | D |
| Of the maid who was freed by her knight from the den | K |
| Of the Ogre whose club was uplifted but then | K |
| Turned aside by the wand of a fairy | D |
| Wilt thou teach us spell words that protect from all harm | F |
| And thoughts of evil banish | L |
| What goblins the sign of the cross may disarm | F |
| What saint it is good to invoke and what charm | F |
| Can make the demon vanish | L |
| - | |
| Or unfold to our gaze thy most wonderful book | M |
| So feared by hell and Satan | K |
| At its hermits and martyrs in gold let us look | M |
| At the virgins and bishops with pastoral crook | M |
| And the hymns and the prayers in Latin | K |
| Oft with legends of angels who watch o'er the young | N |
| Thy voice was wont to gladden | K |
| Have thy lips yet no language no wisdom thy tongue | N |
| Oh see the light wavers and sinking hath flung | N |
| On the wall forms that sadden | K |
| - | |
| Wake awake evil spirits perhaps may presume | F |
| To haunt thy holy dwelling | O |
| Pale ghosts are perhaps stealing into the room | F |
| Oh would that the lamp were relit with the gloom | F |
| These fearful thoughts dispelling | O |
| Thou hast told us our parents lie sleeping beneath | P |
| The grass in a churchyard lonely | D |
| Now thine eyes have no motion thy mouth has no breath | Q |
| And they limbs are all rigid Oh say is this death | Q |
| Or thy prayer or thy slumber only | D |
| - | |
| Envoy | R |
| - | |
| Sad vigil they kept by that grandmother's chair | D |
| Kind angels hovered o'er them | F |
| And the dead bell was tolled in the hamlet and there | D |
| On the following eve knelt that innocent pair | D |
| With the missal book before them | F |
Victor Marie Hugo
(1)
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