The Sleeper in the Valley

Poem by Arthur Rimbaud Collection PoetryThemes WarPeriod 19th centuryArthur's analysis ↓

It is a green hollow where a river sings,
Madly catching silver rags upon the grass;
Where the sun, from the proud mountain,
Shines: it is a little valley foaming with light.

A young soldier, mouth open, head bare,
The nape of his neck bathed in cool blue cress,
Sleeps; he lies stretched out in the grass, under the sky,
Pale in his green bed where the light rains down.

His feet among the gladioli, he sleeps. Smiling as
A sick child would smile, he is taking a nap:
Nature, cradle him warmly: he is cold.

No scent makes his nostrils quiver;
He sleeps in the sun, his hand upon his chest,
At peace. He has two red holes in his right side.

Arthur Rimbaud

Text published on Poésies 123: https://www.poesies123.com/en/poem-the-sleeper-in-the-valley-arthur-rimbaud/

Arthur

Interpretation

Arthur's analysis

Composed in October 1870, at the heart of the war between the France of Napoleon III and the coalition of several German states and Prussia, this poem is one of Arthur Rimbaud's best-known works.

Written in a classical form, since it relies on the combination of a sonnet and alexandrines, this poem is nevertheless characterized by the dramatic progression it carries out: first a description full of life and gaiety of a patch of greenery in the first quatrain, its tone becomes increasingly cold as the lines unfold.
Thus the second quatrain reveals a young soldier, peacefully asleep, but with an alarming pallor; an anxiety that only grows when in the first tercet we learn that he smiles “as a sick child would smile,” and that he is cold.
The poem ends with the second tercet, revealing the drama unfolding before the reader's eyes: the young soldier is dead; he has “two red holes in his right side.”

Thus, beneath its at first jovial trappings, this poem in fact speaks of death, without ever naming it directly, leaving the reader to discover the horror of a scene that Rimbaud had doubtless had to face in one of his many journeys.

All of Arthur's analyses →