Explore "Victor Hugo 1802-1902 (Odes)" by Henry Van Dyke on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Heart of France for a hundred years, / Passionate, sensitive, proud, and strong, / Quick to throb with her hopes and fears, / Fierce to flame with her sense of wrong! / You, who hailed with a morning song / Dream-light gilding a throne of old: / You, who turned when the dream grew cold, / Singing still, to the light that shone / Pure from Liberty's ancient throne, / Over the human throng! / You, who dared in the dark eclipse, -- / When the pygmy heir of a giant name / Dimmed the face of the land with shame, -- / Speak the truth with indignant lips, / Call him little whom men called great, / Scoff at him, scorn him, deny him, / Point to the blood on his robe of state, / Fling back his bribes and defy him!
You, who fronted the waves of fate / As you faced the sea from your island home, / Exiled, yet with a soul elate, / Sending songs o'er the rolling foam, / Bidding the heart of man to wait / For the day when all should see / Floods of wrath from the frowning skies / Fall on an Empire founded in lies, / And France again be free! / You, who came in the Terrible Year / Swiftly back to your broken land, / Now to your heart a thousand times more dear, -- / Prayed for her, sung to her, fought for her, / Patiently, fervently wrought for her, / Till once again, / After the storm of fear and pain, / High in the heavens the star of France stood clear!