1. How glorious were your feasts of old
Yet you, Victor, were more glorious still

2. A hundred years they celebrate your name
Though for one like you, too brief a life to fill

3. Your fame endures as long as eloquence
And orbits span the cosmic spheres

4. Though veiled from sight, in spirit you still shine
As star whose light, not form, appears

5. Propriety prevents me from unsealing your tomb
To ask the throngs: where lies the buried lord?

6. And say: O people! See - his hallowed gospel
Bears no trace of the hand that penned this word

7. He ruled supreme in eloquence and art
Yet you have lost both throne and crown

8. With Hugo dead, the poet laureate’s reign is done
Now but a noble public left alone

9. What can this feast add to his hallowed name?
His glory by his works is set and framed

10. The world has lost its great recorder
Words rain down on him, imagery pours

11. The veil’s removed, each verse and expression
Speaks in secret ciphers to its readers

12. No phrase or meaning that he failed to master
No theme or prose or verse left incomplete

13. Consoler of the grieved, relieving sadness
Guiding them back to faith and calm at need

14. The avenged kings still seek their father’s grace
Yearning, hoping for mercy on misdeeds

15. Waterloo’s victory fades before his brilliance
For that sword’s glory his is no match indeed

16. Oh sea whose waves once nurtured lands
In earth you rest in vaulted tomb obscure

17. Reality itself, though your form lies hidden
Throughout time’s march you shine, your truths endure

18. Lift up the world's long mourning, bring back days
When paupers too could celebrate and feast

19. Look with pity on the suffering, as you did,
When you brought joy and refuge to the least

20. The wheel still turns just as you painted it
Unchanged since Adam’s time in endless spin

21. Blessings and woes both hold their sway
Fortune unjust, then just, tips her scale on a whim

22. Might makes right – the weak bow down
The rich rule over peasants in their need

23. Souls seek selfish pleasures, nurse their grudges
Sink into hatred, chaos and greed

24. Life brings shifting hopes then lets men down
Death alone brings truth, life leads astray