Poem for Tuesday and Longwood Winter

The Ocean's Song
By Victor Hugo
By Toru Dutt

We walked amongst the ruins famed in story
Of Rozel-Tower,
And saw the boundless waters stretch in glory
And heave in power.

O Ocean vast! We heard thy song with wonder,
Whilst waves marked time.
"Appear, O Truth!" thou sang'st with tone of thunder,
"And shine sublime!

"The world's enslaved and hunted down by beagles,
To despots sold.
Souls of deep thinkers, soar like mighty eagles!
The Right uphold.

"Be born! arise! o'er the earth and wild waves bounding,
Peoples and suns!
Let darkness vanish; tocsins be resounding,
And flash, ye guns!

"And you who love no pomps of fog or glamour,
Who fear no shocks,
Brave foam and lightning, hurricane and clamour,--
Exiles: the rocks!"

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After waiting impatiently for an entire week, I finally went with my family, younger son's friend, and Dementordelta to see Les Miserables. I loved pretty much everything about it. Anyone who has read this journal for any length of time probably knows that I adore Tom Hooper, Russell Crowe, and Hugh Jackman, I like Anne Hathaway and Amanda Seyfried, and I first saw Les Miz at the Kennedy Center in its pre-Broadway run with the Colm Wilkinson-Frances Ruffelle cast, so the movie would have had to be godawful for me to have anything bad to say about it, but parts of it were even better than I expected.

I have the French cast album -- on vinyl, that's how long ago -- and I've always been frustrated that both Fantine's and Eponine's big numbers are less political and more focused on romance in English, so I'm not always as moved by their stories as other fans, but Hathaway is astonishing, both brokenhearted and really angry -- her performance may be the best I've ever seen in a movie musical. Jackman is very good, not quite the singer that Wilkinson was but much better than, say, Butler was compared to Crawford in Phantom, and it's really delightful to have Wilkinson playing the Bishop! I was most surprised that "Do You Hear The People Sing," which I always found bombastic, worked so wonderfully in Hooper's presentation of Lamarque's funeral and the start of the uprising; that scene gave me chills, which the number has never done before.

When we got home, we brought in pizza, the Delta and I decided we needed a happy Russell Crowe movie so we watched Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World, a movie that I will always adore. When eventually Delta had to leave, my family wasn't particularly in the mood for the Clemson-LSU game since they were playing in the the Chick-fil-A bowl, so we put on the goofy steampunk Three Musketeers in which Orlando Bloom and Milla Jovovich as the villains are vastly more entertaining than any of the boring, annoying good guys. Then it was Dick Clark, excuse me, Ryan Seacrest time. Here are some photos of lights at Longwood Gardens from Sunday -- happy new year!