( " Il vivait, il jouait. " )

He lived and ever played, the tender smiling thing.
What need, O Earth, to have plucked this flower from blossoming?
Hadst thou not then the birds with rainbow-colours bright,
The stars and the great woods, the wan wave, the blue sky
What need to have rapt this child from her thou hadst placed him by —
Beneath those other flowers to have hid this flower from sight?

Because of this one child thou hast no more of might,
O star-girt Earth, his death yields thee not higher delight!
But, ah! the mother's heart with woe for ever wild,
This heart whose sovran bliss brought forth such bitter birth —
This world as vast as thou, even thou , O sorrowless Earth.
Is desolate and void because of this one child!