| James and Mary Ford, eds. Every Day in the Year. 1902. | | | | May 22 | | Victor Hugo | | By Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909) |
| | (Died May 22, 1885)
MICHAEL, awful angel of the world’s last session, | |
| Once on earth, like him, with fire of suffering tried, | |
| Thine it were, if man’s it were, without transgression, | |
| Thine alone, to take this toil upon thy pride. | |
| Thine, whose heart was great against the world’s oppression, | 5 |
| Even as his whose word is lamp and staff and guide: | |
| Advocate for man, untired of intercession, | |
| Pleads his voice for slaves whose lords his voice defied. | |
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| Sun, that hast not seen a loftier head wax hoary, | |
| Earth, which hast not shown the sun a nobler birth, | 10 |
| Time, that hast not on thy scroll defiled and gory | |
| One man’s name writ brighter in its whole wide girth, | |
| Witness, till the final years fulfil their story, | |
| Till the stars break off the music of their mirth, | |
| What among the sons of men was this man’s glory, | 15 |
| What the vesture of his soul revealed on earth. | | | | |
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