Victor Hugo dotes on his two grandchildren, Georges and Jeanne. Their father is dead, their mother has re-married. This is the last book of poetry Victor Hugo will write. He is in exile in Guernsey, a senator, a one-man Opposition, a scourge of tyrants and a champion of progress. Probably no other poet is so aware of childhood.

He is also moved by nature and the wild, Springtime, rebirth, innocence, Love, the moon, the zoo, a pot of jam, the broken vase, the future of humanity. Most of this book has never before appeared in English.