Poems by Victor Hugo - HTML preview

THE CARRIER PIGEON.

("Oh! qu'est-ce que c'est donc que l'Inconnu.")
     {January, 1871.}

Who then—oh, who, is like our God so great,
     Who makes the seed expand beneath the mountain's weight;
     Who for a swallow's nest leaves one old castle wall,
     Who lets for famished beetles savory apples fall,
     Who bids a pigmy win where Titans fail, in yoke,
     And, in what we deem fruitless roar and smoke,
     Makes Etna, Chimborazo, still His praises sing,
     And saves a city by a word lapped 'neath a pigeon's wing!