French poet and novelist Victor Hugo

You may already know Victor Hugo's masterpieces through movies and Broadway. Born February 26, 1802, he is the author of The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Les Miserables.

Follow the links compiled on The Victor Hugo Website for more information about Victor Hugo's life and work. Search for elusive facts and consider the poet's following words:

What matter it though life uncertain be
To all? What though its goal
Be never reached? What though it fall and flee -
Have we not each a soul?
Be like the bird that on a bough too frail
To bear him gayly swings;
He carols though the slender branches fail -
He know that he has wings!


The Grave and the Rose

The Grave said to the Rose,
'What of the dews of dawn,
Love's flower, what end is theirs?'
'And what of spirits flown,
The souls whereon doth close
The tomb's mouth unawares?'
The Rose said to the Grave.
The Rose said, 'In the shade
From the dawn's tears is made
A perfume faint and strange,
Amber and honey sweet.'
'And all the spirits fleet
Do suffer a sky-change,
More strangely than the dew,
To God's own angels new,'
The Grave said to the Rose.