Upton Sinclair, ed. (1878–1968). rn The Cry for Justice: An Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest. 1915.
The Children of the Poor(Translated by Algernon Charles Swinburne)
Hugo, Victor Marie, Vicomte
Victor Hugo
(The poet and humanitarian of France, 1802–1885)T
He is great: he hath in him God most high.
Children before their fleshly birth
Are lights alive in the blue sky.
They come; God gives us them awhile.
His speech is in their stammering tongue,
And his forgiveness in their smile.
Alas! their right to joy is plain.
If they are hungry, Paradise
Weeps, and, if cold, Heaven thrills with pain.
Speaks judgment on sin’s ministers.
Man holds an angel in his power.
Ah! deep in Heaven what thunder stirs,
Whom in the shadow where we sleep
He sends us clothed about with wings,
And finds them ragged babes that weep!