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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)

TAKE heed of this small child of earth;

He is great: he hath in him God most high.

Children before their fleshly birth

Are lights alive in the blue sky.

In our light bitter world of wrong

They come; God gives us them awhile.

His speech is in their stammering tongue,

And his forgiveness in their smile.

Their sweet light rests upon our eyes.

Alas! their right to joy is plain.

If they are hungry, Paradise

Weeps, and, if cold, Heaven thrills with pain.

The want that saps their sinless flower

Speaks judgment on sin’s ministers.

Man holds an angel in his power.

Ah! deep in Heaven what thunder stirs,

When God seeks out these tender things

Whom in the shadow where we sleep

He sends us clothed about with wings,

And finds them ragged babes that weep!