The Lisbon Earthquake

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1756

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Form and Meter

There are significant formal differences between Voltaire’s original “Poème sur le désastre de Lisbonne” and William F. Fleming’s 1901 English translation. For example, the original poem is an alexandrine of 180 lines arranged as a single stanza, with indentations to indicate shifts. Meanwhile, Fleming’s translation is written in heroic verse of 260 lines with no breaks or indentations. Both versions include Voltaire’s footnotes. The difference in length between the poems is largely due to the different line measures of alexandrines and heroic verses.

The change from alexandrine form to heroic verse makes sense, as both are the conventional form used to epics in their respective language. Alexandrines find their origin in epic Greek poetry and are written 12-syllable lines with a caesura, or a pause, after the sixth syllable. Voltaire’s French verse does not always include the caesura. Heroic verse, by contrast, was popularized by Geoffrey Chaucer and is written in iambic pentameter. Heroic verse also typically features rhyming couplets and is sometimes called “heroic couplets.” The use of epic forms in both instances adds a gravity and irony to the work as it aspires to the epic but is ultimately undone by its tone and content.

The use of heroic verse also serves the poem’s content by making it have the same poetic form as Pope’s Essay on Man, which it is partially a response to. Though Fleming’s translation was published over 150 years after Pope’s work, the similarities in form make them feel like companion pieces in English.

Irony

Voltaire is known for his wit and capacity for satire, and “The Lisbon Earthquake” demonstrates his ability to use irony to further an argument. The use of heroic verse and heightened language such as “the fatal knot” and “opulence luxurious” creates an ironic contrast with the poem’s content, which is anything but heroic (Lines 87, 26). Instead, the poem lambasts philosophers and theologians who use such language to disconnect their ideas from real events.

Voltaire also uses verbal irony to demonstrate an idea’s absurdity. Particularly when presenting the optimistic counterargument, the speaker uses words and imagery that undercut their position. When giving voice to the utilitarian counterexample, the speaker states that “numerous insects shall my corpse give birth” (Line 107). On the surface, this is an example of many (the insects) benefiting from the death of one person but framed in a way that makes the argument sound absurd. Likewise, the speaker uses contradictory word combinations such as “proudly hid” to highlight the argument’s fault lines (Line 114).

Point of View

Voltaire employs many rhetorical techniques in making his argument. One of the most interesting of these techniques has to do with the way he alters and manipulates the poem’s point of view. There are arguably three different points of view adopted by the poem. The first is the pessimist poet-speaker, the second is the optimistic counterargument, and the third is the spectator of the disaster. Voltaire moves through these three points of view seamlessly, as it suits the poem’s argument.

He is also careful to control and manipulate the reader’s distance from these points of view. For instance, the reader is first addressed directly using the second-person pronoun “you” (Lines 15, 17), and is told to “meditate awhile” on the wreckage (Line 7). This places the reader in close proximity to both the spectator and the optimist, as the speaker later asks “Whilst you these facts replete with horror view, / Will you maintain death to their crimes was due” (Lines 19-20). This question implies a reader that is sympathetic with the optimistic outlook. But this relationship does not last throughout the poem. Just a few lines later the second-person pronoun is used separately from “Spectators,” showing that this connection is mutable (Line 29).