: Victor Hugo
: Poems
: Seltzer Books
: 9781455391080
: 1
: CHF 0.70
:
: Lyrik
: English
: 566
: DRM
: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
: ePUB

This book includes selected poems from the following collections: Early Poems, Odes 1818-1828, Ballades 1813-1828, Les Orientales 1829, Les Feuilles D'Automne 1831, Les Chants du Crepuscule 1849, Les Voix Interieures 1840, Les Rayons et Les Ombres 1840, Les Chatiments 1853, Les Contemplations 1836-1856, La Legende des Siecles, La Voix de Guernesey, L'Annee Terrible, L'Art d'Etre Grandpere, Les Quatre Vents de l'Esprit, Various Pieces, and Dramatic Pieces.According to Wikipedia: 'Victor-Marie Hugo(26 February 1802 - 22 May 1885) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France. In France, Hugo's literary fame comes first from his poetry but also rests upon his novels and his dramatic achievements. Among many volumes of poetry, Les Contemplations and La Légende des siècles stand particularly high in critical esteem, and Hugo is sometimes identified as the greatest French poet. Outside France, his best-known works are the novels Les Misérables and Notre-Dame de Paris (known in English also as The Hunchback of Notre Dame). Though a committed conservative royalist when he was young, Hugo grew more liberal as the decades passed; he became a passionate supporter of republicanism, and his work touches upon most of the political and social issues and artistic trends of his time. He is buried in the Panthéon.'
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MARRIAGE AND FEASTS.


 

("La salle est magnifique.")

 

[IV. Aug. 23, 1839.]

 

  The hall is gay with limpid lustre bright--

  The feast to pampered palate gives delight--

  The sated guests pick at the spicy food,

  And drink profusely, for the cheer is good;

  And at that table--where the wise are few--

  Both sexes and all ages meet the view;

  The sturdy warrior with a thoughtful face--

  The am'rous youth, the maid replete with grace,

  The prattling infant, and the hoary hair

  Of second childhood's proselytes--are there;--

  And the most gaudy in that spacious hall,

  Are e'er the young, or oldest of them all

  Helmet and banner, ornament and crest,

  The lion rampant, and the jewelled vest,

  The silver star that glitters fair and white,

  The arms that tell of many a nation's might--

  Heraldic blazonry, ancestral pride,

  And all mankind invents for pomp beside,

  The winged leopard, and the eagle wild--

  All these encircle woman, chief and child;

  Shine on the carpet burying their feet,

  Adorn the dishes that contain their meat;

  And hang upon the drapery, which around

  Falls from the lofty ceiling to the ground,

  Till on the floor its waving fringe is spread,

  As the bird's wing may sweep the roses' bed.--

 

Thus is the banquet ruled by Noise and Light,

Since Light and Noise are foremost on the site.

 

  The chamber echoes to the joy of them

  Who throng around, each with his diadem--

  Each seated on proud throne--but, lesson vain!

  Each sceptre holds its master with a chain!

  Thus hope of flight were futile from that hall,

  Where chiefest guest was most enslaved of all!

  The godlike-making draught that fires the soul

  The Love--sweet poison-honey--past control,

  (Formed of the sexual breath--an idle name,

  Offspring of Fancy and a nervous frame)--

  Pleasure, mad daughter of the darksome Night,

  Whose languid eye flames when is fading light--

  The gallant chases where a man is borne

  By stalwart charger, to the sounding horn--

  The sheeny silk, the bed of leaves of rose,

  Made more to soothe the sight than court repose;

  The mighty palaces that raise the sneer

  Of jealous mendicants and wretches near--

  The spacious parks, from which horizon blue

  Arches o'er alabaster statues new;

  Where Superstition still her walk will take,