8 h 8 minAudiobook7 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What happens when a poet brings the same fierce feeling to a child, a tyrant, and a world of grief?
In Poems, Victor Hugo moves from the bright colours of youth to the tenderness of family life, the anger of exile, and the pain of loss. This collection gathers verse from across his long career. The poet familiar to readers of his novels speaks here through intimate feelings and a large, public voice.
Les Feuilles d'automne turns toward home and family, while La Légende des siècles reaches toward humanity and its stories. Elsewhere, Hugo confronts Louis Napoleon and mourns his daughter Léopoldine. Marriage, children, political upheaval, and bereavement give these poems their roots. Light and darkness return as images of hope and despair.
What you’ll discover
- Colour and daring Meet the young poet through bright verse alive with colour and sound.
- The room at home Discover how family life draws Hugo's attention from distant lands toward the familiar.
- A voice against power Feel the anger of a poet whose opposition to a ruler turns verse into protest.
- Grief for Léopoldine Encounter poems rooted in a father's pain after the sudden death of his beloved daughter.
- Light against darkness Follow recurring images that give hope and despair a vivid presence across Hugo's poetry.
Who will love it
You will love this if you enjoy stories in verse, ghost tales and ballads, or poems about children, home, love and exile, and like to read one short piece in an evening.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A young poet begins with Moses and kings
- Ballads turn history and legend into drama
- Napoleon is both hero and warning
- Poems of pity speak for the poor and fallen
- Children fill the book with tenderness
- Love and nature give the lyric mood
- Exile sharpens anger and faith
- Tales mix legend, morals and wonder
- Hugo's plays and songs add the stage
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- Audiobook
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- 15-minute summary
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- Paperback
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Read and hear Poesie in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Poesie
by Victor Hugo
A cradle floats on the Nile, a lion carries off a prince, and a grandfather watches children play.
Medium level5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
Can a baby in a basket on the Nile, a lion in a palace and a grandfather at a cradle belong to the same book? You meet sultans, knights, drowned sailors and playing children, in English versions by many hands.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A young poet begins with Moses and kings
The collection opens with a section called Early Poems. The first poem, Moses on the Nile, was written for a poetry contest in Toulouse in 1820. Even at this age he writes in bold scenes, with color, motion and deep religious feeling.
In it, an Egyptian princess named Iphis goes down to the river at dawn with her maidens. She sees a reed cradle drifting on the current with a baby asleep inside. She thinks he may belong to the Israelites her father persecutes. Pity draws her toward the fragile cradle.
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What is Victor Hugo's Poems about?
It gathers poems from his early odes through ballads, poems on Napoleon, verse for children, love lyrics, exile satires, legend tales and speeches from his plays. Its main subjects are pity, freedom, family and the cost of power.
Who are the translators in this collection?
Many different English translators give these poems their voices, including Andrew Lang, Toru Dutt and Mrs. Newton Crosland. That is why the tone shifts from poem to poem.
What is The Djinns about?
It is a poem about a swarm of spirits rushing through the night toward a house. The changing line lengths make their approach sound ever more threatening.
The author
Victor Hugo
1802–1885 · French novelist, poet and playwright
Victor Hugo (1802–1885) was a French novelist, poet, dramatist and politician. He was born in Besançon and died in Paris. He wrote The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1831), Les Misérables (1862) and The Contemplations (1856). He lived in exile in Jersey and Guernsey between 1852 and 1870.
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