Poems of Victor Hugo

Victor Hugo's poetry captured the spirit of the Romantic era. They were largely devoted to 19th century causes. Many touched on religious themes. Initially they were royalist but gradually shifted to Bonapartist and Republican. Hugo's poems on nature revealed a continuing search for the great sublime.

Like many young writers of his generation, Hugo was profoundly influenced by François-René de Chateaubriand, the founder of Romanticism and France’s pre-eminent literary figure during the early 1800s. In his youth, Hugo resolved to be “Chateaubriand or nothing,” and his life would come to parallel that of his predecessor’s in many ways. Like Chateaubriand, Hugo would further the cause of Romanticism, become involved in politics as a champion of Republicanism, and be forced into exile due to his political stances. Between 1829 and 1840 he would publish five more volumes of poetry ("Les Orientales", 1829; "Les Feuilles d'automne", 1831; "Les Chants du crépuscule", 1835; "Les Voix intérieures", 1837; and "Les Rayons et les ombres", 1840), cementing his reputation as one of the greatest elegiac and lyric poets of his time.

The precocious passion and eloquence of Hugo's early work brought success and fame at an early age. His first collection of poetry ("Nouvelles Odes et Poésies Diverses") was published in 1824, when Hugo was only twenty two years old, and earned him a royal pension from Louis XVIII. Though the poems were admired for their spontaneous fervor and fluency, it was the collection that followed two years later in 1826 ("Odes et Ballades") that revealed Hugo to be a great poet, a natural master of lyric and creative song.

Collections

Published during Hugo's lifetime

* "Odes et poésies diverses" (1822)
* "Nouvelles Odes" (1824)
* "Odes et Ballades" - published in 1828, is a collection of poems written between 1822 and 1828.
* "Les Orientales" (1829) They reflect Hugo's interest in the exotic East.
* "Les Feuilles d'automne" (1831)
* "Les Chants du crépuscule" (1835)
* "Les Voix intérieures" (1837)
* "Les Rayons et les Ombres" (1840)
* "Les Châtiments" - a collection of poems attacking Napoléon III. Written in 1853, the collection contains some of Hugo's most scathing work, including "Les égouts" ("The sewers"), which contrasts the lives of the poor whom Hugo claims Louis-Napoléon ignored with the pompous grandeur to which the emperor subscribed.
*"Les Contemplations" - Published in 1856, "Les Contemplations" dealt with the pain and tragedy of the death of his daughter and the pain of exile. Escaping pain the poems search nature for answers and for God.
* "La Légende des siècles" (Part One 1859)- a series of poems recounting man's struggle throughout history.
* "Les Chansons des rues et des bois" (1865)
* "L'Année terrible" (1872)
* "L'Art d'être grand-père"
* "La Légende des siècles" (Part Two 1877)
* "La Pitié suprême"
* "Le Pape" (1878)
* "L'Âne" (1880)
* "Religions et religion" (1880)
* "Les Quatre Vents de l'esprit" (1881)
* Final part of "La Légende des Siècles" (1883)

Posthumous collections

* "La Fin de Satan" (1886)
* "Dieu" (1891, 1941)

Posthumous collections selected from Hugo's manuscripts

* "Toute la Lyre" (1888, 1893, 1897, 1935-1937),
* Part Two of "Toute la Lyre" (1893)
* "Les Années funestes" (1898)
* "Dernière Gerbe" (1902, 1941, the title is not Hugo's own)
* "Océan. Tas de pierres" (1942)

External links

* [http://www.gbarto.com/hugo/ Geoffrey Barto's translations]
* [http://www.everypoet.com/Archive/poetry/Victor_Hugo/index.htm EveryPoet]
* [http://www.gavroche.org/vhugo/vhpoetry/ Victor Hugo Central]
* [http://www.napoleonic-literature.com/AgeOfNapoleon/E-Texts/Hugomenu.html#Poetry3 Literature on the Age of Napoleon]