Poem: Small Wonders of Everyday California Life

The Poem Sunset by Victor Hugo

Le soleil s'est couché-1829

 The sun set this evening in masses of cloud,
The storm comes to-morrow, then calm be the night,
Then the Dawn in her chariot refulgent and proud,
Then more nights, and still days, steps of Time in his flight.
The days shall pass rapid as swifts on the wing.
O'er the face of the hills, o'er the face of the seas,
O'er streamlets of silver, and forests that ring
With a dirge for the dead, chanted low by the breeze;
The face of the waters, the brow of the mounts
Deep scarred but not shriveled, and woods tufted green,
Their youth shall renew; and the rocks to the founts
Shall yield what these yielded to ocean their queen.
But day by day bending still lower my head,
Still chilled in the sunlight, soon I shall have cast,
At height of the banquet, my lot with the dead,
Unmissed by creation aye joyous and vast.

Victor Marie Hugo was born in 1802 and passed away in 1885. He is best known for his creative work Les Miserables in 1862. Throughout his early life he and his family moved around with his father who was an officer in the French military under Napoleon. It was these first experiences that gave Hugo his depth of thought and feeling that were poured into his poems and writings.

Hugo also had political leanings that eventually put him into exile. When Napoleon achieved ultimate power in 1851 Hugo stated his conviction that he believed Napoleon was a traitor to France. Hugo was accused of supporting a Jersey paper criticizing Queen Victoria. These two  mishaps led him into exile fifteen years until 1870 with many of his works banned in France. During his time in exile he wrote many famous works such as Les Miserables, Les Chatiments, Les Contemplations and La Legende des siècles.