The Sleeper in the Valley by Rimbaud: the full text, and the last line that changes everything
Looking for the text of Le Dormeur du val? Here is Rimbaud's sonnet in full, in the original French, followed by a plain English reading: why it looks like a peaceful painting for thirteen lines, and what the last six words reveal.
The PoemLe Dormeur du val, the Complete Original Text
The poem is a sonnet written by Arthur Rimbaud in October 1870, at the age of sixteen, during the Franco-Prussian war. Here it is exactly as he wrote it.
C'est un trou de verdure où chante une rivière,
Accrochant follement aux herbes des haillons
D'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 comme
Sourirait 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 poitrine,
Tranquille. Il a deux trous rouges au côté droit.
Arthur Rimbaud, Poésies, 1870.
A plain prose rendering, offered as a reading aid. The print itself 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 the Poem Is About
A young soldier lies in a small valley, in the sun, beside a river. He is smiling, he seems to be asleep. The poem spends thirteen lines building that peaceful picture, insisting almost excessively on the light, the greenery and the calm.
Then comes the last half line: he has two red holes in his right side. The soldier is dead. Rimbaud was sixteen when he wrote this, in the middle of the Franco-Prussian war, and he denounces nothing explicitly: he lets the reader discover on their own what they had been looking at all along.
A Stanza-by-Stanza Reading
A sonnet: two quatrains, two tercets, in alexandrines. The whole machinery of the poem lies in the gap between what is described and what you learn at the end.
The Two Quatrains: The Setting
The valley is alive: the river sings, the sun shines, the hollow bubbles with light. Then the soldier appears, young, mouth open, head bare, his neck in the watercress. The word sleeps is thrown to the start of a line, isolated, and you read it without suspicion. The green bed where the light rains down is already a grave, but nothing says so yet.
First Tercet: The Smile
The poem moves closer: feet among the gladioli, the smile of a sick child. Then Rimbaud speaks directly to nature, rock him warmly, and drops three words that should raise the alarm: he is cold. It is the first sign, and it slips by almost unnoticed in all that sweetness.
Second Tercet: The Two Red Holes
Scents no longer make him shiver. He sleeps in the sun, one hand on his chest, at peace. The last words arrive after a full stop, like a sentence added without raising the voice: two red holes in his right side. The whole picture turns over at once, and you have to read the poem again from the start.
Tranquille. Il a deux trous rouges au côté droit. Le Dormeur du val, final line
Why This Sonnet Is Still the Most Read War Poem
Because it never says the word war. There is no battle, no enemy, no speech: just a young body in a beautiful landscape, and a revelation held back until the poem's last breath. That economy is what makes it unanswerable, and why generations of schoolchildren are given it to read without anyone ever having to explain what they should feel.
The Poem on Your Wall
At Heure d'été we set the full text of Le Dormeur du val as a typographic art print, composed like the page of an old edition: the poem, the poet's name, nothing else. Printed to order on 170 g/m² matte paper, it finds its place in a reading corner, above a desk, or inside a gallery wall of literary prints.
A poem you love on a wall is a text you reread. That is the whole idea.
The Last Word
Le Dormeur du val fits into fourteen lines and takes a lifetime to forget. Read it, reread it, and if it is one of yours, give it a place where you can see it every day.
Poems as Art Prints
The great French poems set as typographic prints, made to order on 170 g/m² matte paper.
See the full collection →Frequently Asked Questions
When was The Sleeper in the Valley written?
Arthur Rimbaud wrote Le Dormeur du val in October 1870, at the age of sixteen, during the Franco-Prussian war. The poem carries that date in his Poésies.
What does the last line of the poem mean?
The last line reveals that the soldier is not asleep but dead: the two red holes in his right side are bullet wounds. Every peaceful detail described before it changes meaning.
How is the sonnet structured?
Le Dormeur du val is a fourteen line sonnet in alexandrines: two quatrains that set the scene and introduce the soldier, then two tercets that move closer until the final revelation.
Why does Rimbaud never say the soldier is dead?
Because restraint hits harder than denunciation. By describing a peaceful sleep until the very last half line, Rimbaud forces the reader to discover the death alone, and to read the poem again.