‘Sunset’ by Victor Hugo is a poignant poem that uses the setting sun to explore the speaker’s views on time and life’s various cycles, coming to the conclusion that the grim finality of human life is softened by the continuation of nature’s beauty.
This poem by Victor Hugo was composed as part of a series written between 1828 and 1831. They reveal the profound ways the poet could elicit from his surroundings such beautiful verses about nature, life, and death. Fueled by his ardently life-affirming sentiments, the poem underscores his awe over creation and reverence for humanity's meager placement within it.
The sun set this evening in masses of cloud,
The storm comes to-morrow, then calm be the night,
Then the Dawn in her chariot refulgent and proud,
Then more nights, and still days, steps of Time in his flight.