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POETICAL WORKS OF MATTHEW ARNOLD POETICAL WORKS OF MATTHEW ARNOLD 3Lontion MACMILLAN AND CO. AND NEW YORK I 890 All rights reserved CONTENTS EARLY POEMS SONNETS- PAGE QUIET WORK ..... I To A FRIEND ..... 2 SHAKESPEARE ..... 2 WRITTEN IN EMERSON'S ESSAYS 3 WRITTEN IN BUTLER'S SERMONS 4 To THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON 4 IN HARMONY WITH NATURE . 5 To GEORGE CRUIKSHANK 6 To A REPUBLICAN FRIEND, 1848 6 CONTINUED ..... 7 RELIGIOUS ISOLATION .... 8 MYCERINUS . , , , ' 8 THE CHURCH OF BROU— I. THE CASTLE .... 13 II. THE CHURCH .... 17 III. THE TOMB .... 18 A MODERN SAPPHO .... 20 REQUIESCAT ..... 21 YOUTH AND CALM ..... 22 viii CONTENTS PAGE A ]\IEMORY-PICTURE .... 23 A DREAM ...... 25 THE NEW SIRENS ..... 26 THE VOICE ...... 36 YOUTH'S AGITATIONS . 37 THE WORLD'S TRIUMPHS . = . 38 STAGIRIUS ...... 38 HUMAN LIFE ..... 40 To A GIPSY CHILD BY THE SEA-SHORE . 41 A QUESTION ..... 44 IN UTRUMQUE PARATUS .... 45 THE WORLD AND THE QUIETIST . • . 46 HORATIAN ECHO ..,,,., 47 THE SECOND BEST ...... 49 CONSOLATION ..... 50 RESIGNATION ...... 52 NARRATIVE POEMS SOHRAB AND RUSTUM &5 THE SICK KING IN BOKHARA 92 BALDER DEAD— 1. SENDING lOI 2. JOURNEY TO THE DEAD III 3. FUNERAL 121 TRISTRAM AND ISEULT— 1. TRISTRAM • 138 2. ISEULT OF IRELAND • 150 3. ISEULT OF BRITTANY • 158 CONTENTS IX PAGE SAINT BRANDAN 165 THE NECKAN 167 THE FORSAKEN MERMAN 170 SONNETS AUSTERITY OF POETRY • 177 A PICTURE AT NEWSTEAD 177 RACHEL : i, 11, in • 178 WORLDLY PLACE 180 EAST LONDON 180 WEST LONDON 181 EAST AND WEST 181 THE BETTER PART 182 THE DIVINITY 183 IMMORTALITY 183 THE GOOD SHEPHERD WITH THE KID 184 MONICA'S LAST PRAYER 184 LYRIC POEMS SWITZERLAND— 1. MEETING 189 2. PARTING 189 3. A FAREWELL 192 4. ISOLATION. TO MARGUERITE 195 5. To MARGUERITE.—CONTINUED 197 6. ABSENCE 198 7. THE TERRACE AT BERNE . 199 X CONTENTS PAGE 201 THE STRAYED REVELLER . • • 211 FRAGMENT OF AN "ANTIGONE" . 214 FRAGMENT OF CHORUS OF A "DEJANEIRA" EARLY DEATH AND FAME . • . 215 216 PHILOMELA ...... 217 URANIA .....•• EUPHROSYNE . • . 218 CALAIS SANDS 219 FADED -LETAVES— I. THE RIVER ...... 221 2. Too LATE . 222 3. SEPARATION . 222 4. ON THE RHINE . 223 5. LONGING ...... 224 DESPONDENCY ..... 224 SELF-DECEPTION ..... • 225 DOVER BEACH ..... 226 GROWING OLD ..... 227 THE PROGRESS OF POESY . 228 NEW ROME ...... 229 PIS-ALLER ...... • 230 THE LAST WORD ..... • 230 THE LORD'S MESSENGERS .... 231 A NAMELESS EPITAPH .... • 232 BACCHANALIA ; OR, THE NEW AGE 232 EPILOGUE. TO LESSING'S LAOCOON 236 PERSISTENCY OF POETRY .... • 243 A CAUTION TO POETS .... • 243 CONTENTS XI PAGE THE YOUTH OF NATURE . 243 THE YOUTH OF MAN 247 PALLADIUM ..... 251 PROGRESS ..... 252 REVOLUTIONS .... 254 SELF-DEPENDENCE .... 2S5 MORALITY .... 256 A SUMMER NIGHT . 257 THE BURIED LIFE .... 260 LINES WRITTEN IN KENSINGTON GARDENS 263 A WISH ..... 265 THE FUTURE .... 267 ELEGIAC POEMS THE SCHOLAR-GIPSY 273 THYRSIS 281 MEMORIAL VERSES . 289 STANZAS IN MEMORY OF EDWARD QUILLINAN 292 STANZAS FROM CARNAC 292 A SOUTHERN NIGHT 294 HAWORTH CHURCHYARD . 299 EPILOGUE . 303 RUGBY CHAPEL 304 HEINE'S GRAVE 311 STANZAS FROM THE GRANDE CHARTREUSE 318 STANZAS IN MEMORY OF THE AUTHOR OF "OBERMANN" 325 OBERMANN ONCE MORE ..... 332 xu CONTENTS DRAMATIC POEMS MEROPE, A TRAGEDY 347 EMPEDOCLES ON ETNA 436 LATER POEMS WESTMINSTER ABBEY 479 GEIST'S GRAVE 485 POOR MATTHIAS 488 KAISER DEAD 495 NOTES 501 EARLY POEMS SONNETS QUIET WORK ONE lesson, Nature, let me learn of thee. One lesson which in every wind is blown, One lesson of two duties kept at one Though the loud world proclaim their enmity— Of toil unsever'd from tranquillity ! Of labour, that in lasting fruit outgrows Far noisier schemes, accomplish'd in repose, . Too great for haste, too high for rivalry ! Yes, while on earth a thousand discords ring, Man's fitful uproar irangling with his toil. Still do thy sleepless ministers move on, Their glorious tasks in silence perfecting; Still working, blaming still our vain turmoil. Labourers that shall not fail, when man is gone. B EARLY POEMS TO A FRIEND WHO prop, thou ask'st, in these bad days, my mind ?— He much, the old man, who, clearest-soul'd of men. Saw The Wide Prospect, and the Asian Fen,i And Tmolus hill, and Smyrna bay, though blind. Much he, whose friendship I not long since won. That halting slave, who in Nicopolis Taught Arrian, when Vespasian's brutal son Clear'd Rome of what most shamed him. But be his My special thanks, whose even-balanced soul, From first youth tested up to extreme old age. Business could not make dull, nor passion wild; Who saw life steadily, and saw it whole; The mellow glory of the Attic stage. Singer of sweet Colonus, and its child. SHAKESPEARE OTHERS abide our question. Thou art free. We ask and ask—Thou smilest and art still. Out-topping knowledge. For the loftiest hill, Who to the stars uncrowns his majesty, Planting his steadfast footsteps in the sea, Making the heaven of heavens his dwelling-place, Spares but the cloudy border of his base To the foil'd searching of mortality; SONNETS And thou, who didst the stars and sunbeams know, Self-school'd, self-scann'd, self-honour'd, self-secure, Didst tread on earth unguess'd at.—Better so! All pains the immortal spirit must endure. All weakness which impairs, all griefs which bow, Find their sole speech in that victorious brow. WRITTEN IN EMERSON'S ESSAYS "O MONSTROUS, dead, unprofitable world, That thou canst hear, and hearing, hold thy way! A voice oracular hath peal'd to-day. To-day a hero's banner is unfurl'd; Hast thou no lip for welcome?"—So I said. Man after man, the world smiled and pass'd by; A smile of wistful incredulity As though one spake of life unto the dead— Scornful, and strange, and sorrowful, and full Of bitter knowledge. Yet the will is free; Strong is the soul, and wise, and beautiful; The seeds of godlike power are in us still; Gods are we, bards, saints, heroes, if we will!— Dumb judges, answer, truth or mockery ? EARLY POEMS WRITTEN IN BUTLER'S SERMONS AFFECTIONS, Instincts, Principles, and Powers, Impulse and Reason, Freedom and Control— So men, unravelling God's harmonious whole, Rend in a thousand shreds this life of ours. Vain labour ! Deep and broad, where none may see, Spring the foundations of that shadowy throne Where man's one nature, queen-like, sits alone. Centred in a majestic unity; And rays her powers, like sister-islands seen Linking their coral arms under the sea. Or cluster'd peaks with plunging gulfs between Spann'd by aerial arches all of gold, Whereo'er the chariot wheels of life are roU'd In cloudy circles to eternity. TO THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON ON HEARING HIM MISPRAISED BECAUSE thou hast believed, the wheels of life Stand never idle, but go always round; Not by their hands, who vex the patient ground. Moved only; but by genius, in the strife Of all its chafing torrents after thaw. Urged; and to feed whose movement, spinning sand The feeble sons of pleasure set their hand; ' And, in this vision of the general law, SONNETS Hast labour'd, but with purpose; hast become Laborious, persevering, serious, firm— For this, thy track, across the fretful foam Of vehement actions without scope or term, Call'd history, keeps a splendour; due to wit. Which saw one clue to life, and follow'd it. IN HARMONY WITH NATURE TO A PREACHER "IN harmony with Nature?" Restless fool, Who with such heat dost preach what were to thee. When true, the last impossibility— To be like Nature strong, like Nature cool! Know, man hath all which Nature hath, but more. And in that more lie all his hopes of good. Nature is cruel, man is sick of blood; Nature is stubborn, man would fain adore; Nature is fickle, man hath need of rest; Nature forgives no debt, and fears no grave; Man would be mild, and with safe conscience blest. Man must begin, know this, where Nature ends; Nature and man can never be fast friends. Fool, if thou canst not pass her, rest her slave ! EARLY POEMS TO GEORGE CRUIKSHANK ON SEEING, IN THE COUNTRY, HIS PICTURE OF "THE BOTTLE" ARTIST, whose hand, with horror wing'd, hath torn From the rank life of towns this leaf! and flung The prodigy of full-blown crime among Valleys and men to middle fortune born. Not innocent, indeed, yet not forlorn— Say, what shall calm us when such guests intrude Like comets on the heavenly solitude ? Shall breathless glades, cheer'd by shy Dian's horn, Cold-bubbling springs, or caves ?—Not so ! The soul Breasts her own griefs; and, urged too fiercely, says : " Why tremble ? True, the nobleness of man May be by man effaced; man can control To pain, to death, the bent of his own days. Know thou the worst! So much, not more, he canJ^ TO A REPUBLICAN FRIEND, 1848 GOD knows it, I am with you. If to prize Those virtues, prized and practised by too few, But prized, but loved, but eminent in you, Man's fundamental Hfe; if to despise The barren optimistic sophistries Of comfortable moles, whom what they do Teaches the Hmit of the just and true (And for such doing they require not eyes); SONNETS If sadness at the long heart-wasting show Wherein earth's great ones are disquieted; If thoughts, not idle, while before me flow The armies of the homeless and unfed— If these are yours, if this is what you are. Then am I yours, and what you feel, I share.