Victor Hugo
(“Il s’est dit tant de fois.”)[1]
How often have the people said: “What’s power?”
Who reigns soon is dethroned? each fleeting hour
Has onward borne, as in a fevered dream,
Such quick reverses, like a judge supreme—
Austere but just, they contemplate the end
To which the current of events must tend.
Self-confidence has taught them to forbear,
And in the vastness of their strength, they spare.
Armed with impunity, for one in vain
Resists a nation, they let others reign.
[1] Original citation: G.W.M. Reynolds, ‘The Patience of the People’, in The Works of Victor Hugo, ed. by Isabel F. Hapgood, Huntington Smith and Helen B. Dole, 8 vols (New York: The Kelmscott Society, 1888), II, p. 96.
Categories: 19th Century, France, g w m reynolds, George W M Reynolds, History, literature, Poetry, The Patience of the People, Victor Hugo
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