Poem: Man and Woman (Victor Hugo)

Man is the most elevated of creatures,
Woman the most sublime of ideals.
God made for man a throne; for Woman an altar.
The throne exalts; the altar sanctifies.
Man is the brain; Woman, the heart.
The brain creates light; the heart, love.
Light engenders; love resurrects.
Because of reason Man is strong.
Because of tears Woman is invincible.
Reason is convincing; tears, moving.
Man is capable of all heroism.
Woman of all martyrdom.
Heroism ennobles; martyrdom sublimates.
Man has supremacy; Woman, preference.
Supremacy is strength.
Preference is the right.
Man is a genius; Woman, an angel.
Genius is immeasurable; the angel indefinable.
The aspiration of man is supreme glory.
The aspiration of woman is extreme virtue.
Glory creates all that is great; virtue, all that is divine.
Man is a code; Woman a gospel.
A code corrects; the gospel perfects.
Man thinks; Woman dreams.
To think is to have a worm in the brain.
To dream is to have a halo on the brow.
Man is an ocean, Woman a lake.
The ocean has the adorning pearl; the lake, dazzling poetry.
Man is the flying eagle; Woman, the singing nightingale.
To fly is to conquer space; to sing is to conquer the soul.
Man is a temple; Woman a shrine.
Before the temple we discover ourselves; before the shrine we kneel.
In short, man is found where earth finishes, woman where heaven begins.