The Pool And The Soul.

A poem by Victor Marie Hugo

("Comme dans les étangs.")

[X., May, 1839.]


As in some stagnant pool by forest-side,
In human souls two things are oft descried;
The sky, - which tints the surface of the pool
With all its rays, and all its shadows cool;
The basin next, - where gloomy, dark and deep,
Through slime and mud black reptiles vaguely creep.

R.F. HODGSON