The Exile's Desire

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Title:     The Exile's Desire
Author: Victor Hugo [More Titles by Hugo]

("Si je pouvais voir, O patrie!")

[Bk. III. xxxvii.]

Would I could see you, native land,
Where lilacs and the almond stand
Behind fields flowering to the strand--
But no!

Can I--oh, father, mother, crave
Another final blessing save
To rest my head upon your grave?--
But no!

In the one pit where ye repose,
Would I could tell of France's woes,
My brethren, who fell facing foes--
But no!

Would I had--oh, my dove of light,
After whose flight came ceaseless night,
One plume to clasp so purely white.--
But no!

Far from ye all--oh, dead, bewailed!
The fog-bell deafens me empaled
Upon this rock--I feel enjailed--
Though free.

Like one who watches at the gate
Lest some shall 'scape the doomed strait.
I watch! the tyrant, howe'er late,
Must fall!

[The end]
Victor Hugo's poem: Exile's Desire

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