Some things that fly there be－1
Birds－Hours－the Bumblebee－
Of these no Elegy.
Some things that stay there be－4
Grief－Hills－Eternity－
Nor this behooveth me.
There are that resting, rise.7
Can I expound the skies?
How still the Riddle lies!
Birds－Hours－the Bumblebee－
Of these no Elegy.
Some things that stay there be－4
Grief－Hills－Eternity－
Nor this behooveth me.
There are that resting, rise.7
Can I expound the skies?
How still the Riddle lies!
(F.68/J.89)
[1–9]:: This poem is about the convent life of Cosette and Valjean, the Les Miserables by Victor Hugo.
[1] fly:: to escape. Jean Valjean escaped to a convent as a gardener and the orphant Cosette a student there.
[2] Hours:: prayers to be repeated at stated times of the day, as matins and vespers; something Cosette must do in the convent.
[3] Elegy:: as a student, Cosette lived without mourn or lamentation.
[5] Grief, Eternity:: only grave in the convent.
[6] me:: Cosette, who should not live in a convent forever.
[8] expound the skies:: to interpret the outside world.
[9] Riddle:: for Cosette, the outside world was a riddle. Valjean took Cosette out from convent after her education "almost finished and complete."
The convent stopped him on this descent. It was the second place of captivity he had see. ─ Les Miserables, Cosette, by Victor Hugo, translated by Chas. E. Wilbour (1861)
He said to himself that this child had a right to know what life was before renouncing it; that to cut her off, in advance, and, in some sort, without consulting her, from all pleasure, under pretence of saving her from all trial, to take advantage of her ignorance and isolation to give her an artificial vocation, was to outrage a human creature and to lie to God. . . . He resolved to leave the convent. ─ Les Miserables, in one volume translated by Chas. E. Wilbour (1863)