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Guitar Song

A poem retold from Victor Hugo

Victor Hugo was a French poet and novelist who wrote during the nineteenth century. This short poem first appeared in his collection Poems in 1838. The poem is written as a conversation between two voices, one asking questions about sorrow, pleasure and happiness, and the other giving simple, wise answers. Hugo believed that poetry could speak to the deepest parts of the human heart. This reader retells the poem as a gentle story so that young readers can hear the beauty of Hugo's idea: that dreaming and loving are the paths to joy. This text reflects its era.

Band

Yellow · Emerging readersTypical starting range: ages 6–8

Length

medium · about 500 words in 4 sections · 4 pictures

Source

Poems, Victor Hugo

First published

see the About page in the reader

Regions

Canada · United States

Included formats

• · Web reader and PDF
• · EPUB for e-readers
• · Home-print sheet
• · Folded booklet
• · Binder edition (8.5 × 11)
• · Worksheet
• · Quick Check (8 questions) with answer key
• · Read-aloud script
• · Colouring page
• · Teacher’s Edition (members)

Readers are engineered from the original public-domain text with AI under HummingRead’s published canon and Content Philosophy, checked by automated audit and sampled by a person. Pictures are made with AI to HummingRead’s brief for each story. How a reader is made.

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