Explore "The Young Widow" by Jean de La Fontaine on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
A husband's death brings always sighs; / The widow sobs, sheds tears -- then dries. / Of Time the sadness borrows wings; / And Time returning pleasure brings. / Between the widow of a year / And of a day, the difference / Is so immense, / That very few who see her / Would think the laughing dame / And weeping one the same. / The one puts on repulsive action, / The other shows a strong attraction. / The one gives up to sighs, or true or false; / The same sad note is heard, whoever calls. / Her grief is inconsolable, / They say. Not so our fable, / Or, rather, not so says the truth.
To other worlds a husband went / And left his wife in prime of youth. / Above his dying couch she bent, / And cried, 'My love, O wait for me! / My soul would gladly go with thee! ' / (But yet it did not go.) / The fair one's sire, a prudent man, / Check'd not the current of her woe. / At last he kindly thus began: -- / 'My child, your grief should have its bound. / What boots it him beneath the ground / That you should drown your charms? / Live for the living, not the dead. / I don't propose that you be led / At once to Hymen's arms; / But give me leave, in proper time, / To rearrange the broken chime / With one who is as good, at least, / In all respects, as the deceased. ' / 'Alas! ' she sigh'd, 'the cloister vows / Befit me better than a spouse. ' / The father left the matter there. / About one month thus mourn'd the fair; / Another month, her weeds arranged; / Each day some robe or lace she changed, / Till mourning dresses served to grace, / And took of ornament the place. / The frolic band of loves / Came flocking back like doves. / Jokes, laughter, and the dance, / The native growth of France, / Had finally their turn; / And thus, by night and morn, / She plunged, to tell the truth, / Deep in the fount of youth. / Her sire no longer fear'd / The dead so much endear'd; / But, as he never spoke, / Herself the silence broke: -- / 'Where is that youthful spouse,' said she, / 'Whom, sir, you lately promised me? '[1]