From A Bibliography of Alexandre Dumas père by Frank Wild Reed: One four-line stanza, rhyming alternatelv.
First published in Dumas' journal "Le Caucase" for April 25th, 1859, in Chapter XVIII.
It is now to be found in the "Impressions de Voyage : Le Caucase," Chapter XIX.
M. Ch. Glinel possessed an autograph letter of Dumas', attached to which was a dried geranium flower. This letter, unsigned, contained the following passage: "Flowers picked at Derbend on the 17th of November, 1858, opposite the Caspian Sea, on the tomb of a young girl killed by her lover (Bestuchef) . . . You see that there are geraniums everywhere, even in Asia."
In the "Impressions de Voyage" Dumas states : "I left with Bagration four lines, which I asked him to have carved, as a memory of my passage by Derbend, at the foot of the tomb of poor Oline Nesterzof."
Edna Underwood, in her "The Taste of Honey" (pp. 62-70), gives a translation of these lines, expressing surprise at discovering Dumas to be a poet.
