Author's Note: I got the idea for this poem while reading the section "Eponine" in Book 4: Saint-Denis. Father Mabeuf wonders if she is a goblin; and I realized that the song "A Little Fall of Rain" must have been an allusion to the fact that she watered those flowers for him. There's also the fact that the scene in which Eponine meets Marius is entitled, "A Rose in Misery," in some translations. The last couple verses might fit better in the musical universe.
"Who Was She?"
A rose,
fragile and withering,
recognized for her beauty,
shunned for her thorns,
plucked before she blossomed.
A thief,
stealing joy from a Lark
and profits from her father.
A raincloud,
watering the flowers
with her tears.
A goblin,
playing tricks,
neither good
nor evil.
A gardener,
planting seeds of happiness
whose fruit she will never taste.
A traitor,
turning her back
on her family.
A friend,
blind to my faults,
loyal to the end.
A ghost,
haunting Paris in her life
and my mind in her death.