Marriage and Feasts by Victor Hugo

[MikeLigalig.com]

MARRIAGE AND FEASTS by Victor Hugo
     ("La salle est magnifique.")

     {IV. Aug. 23, 1839.}
       The hall is gay with limpid lustre brightâ€"
       The feast to pampered palate gives delightâ€"
       The sated guests pick at the spicy food,
       And drink profusely, for the cheer is good;
       And at that tableâ€"where the wise are fewâ€"
       Both sexes and all ages meet the view;
       The sturdy warrior with a thoughtful faceâ€"
       The am'rous youth, the maid replete with grace,
       The prattling infant, and the hoary hair
       Of second childhood's proselytesâ€"are there;â€"
       And the most gaudy in that spacious hall,
       Are e'er the young, or oldest of them all
       Helmet and banner, ornament and crest,
       The lion rampant, and the jewelled vest,
       The silver star that glitters fair and white,
       The arms that tell of many a nation's mightâ€"
       Heraldic blazonry, ancestral pride,
       And all mankind invents for pomp beside,
       The wingèd leopard, and the eagle wildâ€"
       All these encircle woman, chief and child;
       Shine on the carpet burying their feet,
       Adorn the dishes that contain their meat;
       And hang upon the drapery, which around
       Falls from the lofty ceiling to the ground,
       Till on the floor its waving fringe is spread,
       As the bird's wing may sweep the roses' bed.â€"

     Thus is the banquet ruled by Noise and Light,
     Since Light and Noise are foremost on the site.

       The chamber echoes to the joy of them
       Who throng around, each with his diademâ€"
       Each seated on proud throneâ€"but, lesson vain!
       Each sceptre holds its master with a chain!
       Thus hope of flight were futile from that hall,
       Where chiefest guest was most enslaved of all!
       The godlike-making draught that fires the soul
       The Loveâ€"sweet poison-honeyâ€"past control,
       (Formed of the sexual breathâ€"an idle name,
       Offspring of Fancy and a nervous frame)â€"
       Pleasure, mad daughter of the darksome Night,
       Whose languid eye flames when is fading lightâ€"
       The gallant chases where a man is borne
       By stalwart charger, to the sounding hornâ€"
       The sheeny silk, the bed of leaves of rose,
       Made more to soothe the sight than court repose;
       The mighty palaces that raise the sneer
       Of jealous mendicants and wretches nearâ€"
       The spacious parks, from which horizon blue
       Arches o'er alabaster statues new;
       Where Superstition still her walk will take,
       Unto soft music stealing o'er the lakeâ€"
       The innocent modesty by gems undoneâ€"
       The qualms of judges by small brib'ry wonâ€"
       The dread of children, trembling while they playâ€"
       The bliss of monarchs, potent in their swayâ€"
       The note of war struck by the culverin,
       That snakes its brazen neck through battle dinâ€"
       The military millipede
       That tramples out the guilty seedâ€"
       The capital all pleasure and delightâ€"
       And all that like a town or army chokes
       The gazer with foul dust or sulphur smokes.
       The budget, prize for which ten thousand bait
       A subtle hook, that ever, as they wait
       Catches a weed, and drags them to their fate,
       While gleamingly its golden scales still spreadâ€"
       Such were the meats by which these guests were fed.

       A hundred slaves for lazy master cared,
       And served each one with what was e'er prepared
       By him, who in a sombre vault below,
       Peppered the royal pig with peoples' woe,
       And grimly glad went laboring till lateâ€"
       The morose alchemist we know as Fate!
       That ev'ry guest might learn to suit his taste,
       Behind had Conscience, real or mock'ry, placed;
       Conscience a guide who every evil spies,
       But royal nurses early pluck out both his eyes!

       Oh! at the table there be all the great,
       Whose lives are bubbles that best joys inflate!
       Superb, magnificent of revelsâ€"doubt
       That sagest lose their heads in such a rout!
       In the long laughter, ceaseless roaming round,
       Joy, mirth and glee give out a maelström's sound;
       And the astonished gazer casts his care,
       Where ev'ry eyeball glistens in the flare.

       But oh! while yet the singing Hebes pour
       Forgetfulness of those without the doorâ€"
       At very hour when all are most in joy,
       And the hid orchestra annuls annoy,
       Woeâ€"woe! with jollity a-top the heights,
       With further tapers adding to the lights,
       And gleaming 'tween the curtains on the street,
       Where poor folks stareâ€"hark to the heavy feet!
       Some one smites roundly on the gilded grate,
       Some one below will be admitted straight,
       Some one, though not invited, who'll not wait!
       Close not the door! Your orders are vain breathâ€"
       That stranger enters to be known as Deathâ€"
       Or merely Exileâ€"clothed in alien guiseâ€"
       Death drags awayâ€"with his prey Exile flies!

       Death is that sight. He promenades the hall,
       And casts a gloomy shadow on them all,
       'Neath which they bend like willows soft,
       Ere seizing oneâ€"the dumbest monarch oft,
       And bears him to eternal heat and drouth,
       While still the toothsome morsel's in his mouth.

     G.W.M. REYNOLDS.

*WORK from HOME and START your own blog site, business or personal website, or online store at www.dreamhost.com