Poems by Victor Hugo - HTML preview

LOVE'S TREACHEROUS POOL

("Jeune fille, l'amour c'est un miroir.")
     {XXVI., February, 1835.}

Young maiden, true love is a pool all mirroring clear,
       Where coquettish girls come to linger in long delight,
     For it banishes afar from the face all the clouds that besmear
         The soul truly bright;
     But tempts you to ruffle its surface; drawing your foot
       To subtilest sinking! and farther and farther the brink
     That vainly you snatch—for repentance, 'tis weed without root,—
         And struggling, you sink!