Poems by Victor Hugo - HTML preview

FIRST LOVE.

("Vous êtes singulier.")
     {MARION DELORME, Act I., June, 1829, played 1831.}

     MARION (smiling.) You're strange, and yet I love you thus.

     DIDIER.                     You love me?
     Beware, nor with light lips utter that word.
     You love me!—know you what it is to love
     With love that is the life-blood in one's veins,
     The vital air we breathe, a love long-smothered,
     Smouldering in silence, kindling, burning, blazing,
     And purifying in its growth the soul.
     A love that from the heart eats every passion
     But its sole self; love without hope or limit,
     Deep love that will outlast all happiness;
     Speak, speak; is such the love you bear me?

     MARION.                                      Truly.

     DIDIER. Ha! but you do not know how I love you!
     The day that first I saw you, the dark world
     Grew shining, for your eyes lighted my gloom.
     Since then, all things have changed; to me you are
     Some brightest, unknown creature from the skies.
     This irksome life, 'gainst which my heart rebelled,
     Seems almost fair and pleasant; for, alas!
     Till I knew you wandering, alone, oppressed,
     I wept and struggled, I had never loved.

     FANNY KEMBLE-BUTLER.