I
The setting
"C'est un petit val qui mousse de rayons."
The valley is alive: the river sings, the sun shines, the light foams over. Everything is there to make you lower your guard.
Arthur Rimbaud · Cahier de Douai · 1870
The Sleeper of the Valley by Rimbaud: Full Text
The whole sonnet of Le Dormeur du val, also known as The Sleeper in the Valley, in the original French with an English rendering, what it holds back until the last line, and why you read it again from the top the moment you finish.
Read the poem
Heure d'été edition
The sonnet as a poster, set like a page of poetry
The title in italics, the poet's name under a fine rule, then the fourteen lines in two quatrains and two tercets, centered in generous white space. Printed on thick matte eco-friendly paper.
- 30x40 cm12x16 in
- 40x50 cm16x20 in
- 50x70 cm20x28 in
Printed and shipped from a studio near you: most orders arrive in 5 business days.
CAHIER DE DOUAI · SONNET
The full text
C'est un trou de verdure où chante une rivièreAccrochant follement aux herbes des haillonsD'argent ; où le soleil, de la montagne fière,Luit : c'est un petit val qui mousse de rayons.
Un soldat jeune, bouche ouverte, tête nue,Et la nuque baignant dans le frais cresson bleu,Dort ; il est étendu dans l'herbe, sous la nue,Pâle dans son lit vert où la lumière pleut.
Les pieds dans les glaïeuls, il dort. Souriant commeSourirait un enfant malade, il fait un somme :Nature, berce-le chaudement : il a froid.
Les parfums ne font pas frissonner sa narine ;Il dort dans le soleil, la main sur sa poitrineTranquille. Il a deux trous rouges au côté droit.
Octobre 1870.
Arthur Rimbaud · text of the Vanier edition, 1895
A plain English rendering, offered as a reading aid. The poster keeps the original French.
It is a green hollow where a river sings, madly catching silver rags on the grasses; where the sun shines down from the proud mountain: a small valley bubbling with light.
A young soldier, mouth open, head bare, the back of his neck bathing in cool blue watercress, sleeps; he is stretched out in the grass, under the open sky, pale in his green bed where the light rains down.
Feet among the gladioli, he sleeps. Smiling as a sick child would smile, he is taking a nap: Nature, rock him warmly, he is cold.
Scents no longer make his nostrils quiver; he sleeps in the sun, one hand on his chest, at peace. He has two red holes in his right side.
What is The Sleeper of the Valley about?
A young soldier lies in a small valley, beside a river, in full sun. He is smiling, he seems to be asleep. For thirteen lines, the poem builds this peaceful picture, insisting almost too much on the light, the greenery and the calm. Then comes the end of the last line: he has two red holes in his right side. The soldier is dead.
1870
October · Franco-Prussian War
Rimbaud turns sixteen on the 20th
Rimbaud turns sixteen on the 20th
Rimbaud wrote this sonnet in October 1870, the month he turned sixteen, during the Franco-Prussian War. The manuscript belongs to the second Cahier de Douai, the poems he copied out that autumn for the poet Paul Demeny. Le Dormeur du val was not published until 1888, in an anthology, long after its author had stopped writing.
Why does Rimbaud never say the word war?
Because restraint strikes harder than denunciation. There is no battle, no enemy, no speech: a young body in a beautiful landscape, and a revelation held back until the poem's last breath. Rimbaud lets the reader discover alone what they had been looking at all along, and that economy is what makes the sonnet unanswerable. Generations of French schoolchildren have read it without anyone ever having to tell them what to feel.
A stanza-by-stanza reading
A sonnet in alexandrines: two quatrains, two tercets. The whole mechanism lies in the gap between what is described and what you learn at the end.
II
The soldier
"Pâle dans son lit vert où la lumière pleut."
The word "Dort," sleeps, is thrown to the start of a line, set apart, and you read it without suspicion. This green bed is already a grave, but nothing says so yet.
III
The smile
"Nature, berce-le chaudement : il a froid."
The smile of a sick child, then three words that should raise the alarm: he is cold, in full sun. It is the first sign, and it slips by almost unnoticed in all that softness.
IV
The two red holes
"Tranquille. Il a deux trous rouges au côté droit."
The scents no longer make him shiver. The last words arrive after a period, like a sentence added without raising the voice, and the whole picture overturns at once.
Why is this sonnet so beautiful in a large format?
Because it reads from top to bottom the way you walk down into the valley: fourteen lines, and the last one at the very bottom of the sheet, where it has to fall. In 50x70 cm (20x28 in), the white around the text becomes the calm of the landscape, the calm that makes the fall so violent.
In a reading nook, above a desk or in a gallery wall of literary prints, it is the poem every French student learns in school and understands a little better with each reading.
To read on: Demain, dès l'aube by Victor Hugo, another walk toward a grave, and The Albatross by Baudelaire.
An exclusive studio creation
What to pair it with?
With Stillness No. 2, an exclusive studio creation: a pale pink disc resting on a powder pink ground. It is the sun of the valley, the one in which the soldier "sleeps," turned into a soft, motionless shape.
Side by side, the sonnet on one side and the sun on the other, the two posters say what the poem says: a perfect calm that gives nothing away. The pink answers the cream paper and softens a hard text.
- For a wall of poetry: Chanson d'automne, by Verlaine, Rimbaud's friend.
- For another classic learned by heart: Heureux qui, comme Ulysse, by Du Bellay.
In 30x40 or 50x70 cm (12x16 or 20x28 in).
Heure d'été edition
Food for eyes & soul.
See more creationsFrequently asked questions
When was The Sleeper of the Valley written?
In October 1870, during the Franco-Prussian War. Arthur Rimbaud turned sixteen that month. The manuscript belongs to the second Cahier de Douai; the poem was not published until 1888.
What does the last line of The Sleeper of the Valley mean?
It reveals that the soldier is not asleep but dead: the two red holes in his right side are bullet wounds. The whole peaceful scene described before it then changes meaning.
How is the sonnet structured?
Fourteen alexandrines: two quatrains that set the scene and introduce the soldier, then two tercets that move closer to him until the final revelation.
Why does Rimbaud never say the soldier is dead?
Because restraint has more effect than denunciation. By describing sleep until the last line, Rimbaud makes the reader discover the death for themselves, and read the poem again.
Is Le Dormeur du val part of the Cahier de Douai?
Yes. It appears in the second of the two notebooks Rimbaud copied out in Douai in the autumn of 1870 for the poet Paul Demeny, also known as the Demeny collection.
Is there a poster of The Sleeper of the Valley?
Yes: Heure d'été sets the whole sonnet as a poster, in 30x40, 40x50 or 50x70 cm (12x16, 16x20 or 20x28 in), on thick matte eco-friendly paper.
Le Dormeur du val fits into fourteen lines and takes a lifetime to forget. If it is one of yours, give it a place where you can see it every day.
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