Poems by Victor Hugo - HTML preview

MAZEPPA.

("Ainsi, lorsqu'un mortel!")
     {XXXIV., May, 1828.}

     As when a mortal—Genius' prize, alack!
     Is, living, bound upon thy fatal back,
         Thou reinless racing steed!
     In vain he writhes, mere cloud upon a star,
     Thou bearest him as went Mazeppa, far
         Out of the flow'ry mead,—
     So—though thou speed'st implacable, (like him,
     Spent, pallid, torn, bruised, weary, sore and dim,
         As if each stride the nearer bring
     Him to the grave)—when comes the time,
     After the fall, he rises—KING!

     H.L. WILLIAMS