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91

SONNET V
ON READING “LES CONTEMPLATIONS” OF VICTOR HUGO

First through the early ways of love made bright
With tenderest blossoms, holding his strong hand
I wandered. Airs of morning soft and bland
Played round us; through the greenwood's dense delight
Of tangled flowers and shrubs shone Venus white:—
The silver-fringed small wavelets kissed the land;
We mixed with many a laughing lover-band;
The world was fair to touch and fair to sight.
Then came a change. By many a river-steep
We passed: the blossoms less abundant grew.
Still the same gold stars watched above our sleep,
And the same high interminable blue.
At last before the poet who led and me
Following, a grey waste gleamed:—Death and the sea.