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The Project Gutenberg eBook of Poetical Works of Matthew Arnold, by Matthew Arnold
Title: Poetical Works of Matthew Arnold
Author: Matthew Arnold
Release Date: January 7, 2009 [eBook #27739]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POETICAL WORKS OF MATTHEW ARNOLD***
E-text prepared by Clare Boothby, Carla Foust, J. C. Byers,
and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
(http://www.pgdp.net)
Transcriber's note
Printer errors have been corrected, and they are indicated with a mouse-hover and listed at the end of this book. The author's spelling has been retained.
POETICAL WORKS
OF
MATTHEW ARNOLD
First Complete Edition printed September 1890.
Reprinted November and December 1890. July 1891.
POETICAL WORKS
OF
MATTHEW ARNOLD
London
MACMILLAN AND CO.
AND NEW YORK
1891
All rights reserved
CONTENTS
EARLY POEMS
Sonnets— PAGE Quiet Work 1 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 A Memory-Picture 23 A Dream 25 The New Sirens 26 The Voice 36 Youth's Agitations 37 The World's Triumphs
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tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">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 65 The Sick King in Bokhara 92 Balder Dead— 1. Sending 101 2. Journey To the Dead 111 3. Funeral 121 Tristram and Iseult Tristram 138 Iseult of Ireland 150 Iseult of Brittany 158 Saint Brandan 165 The Neckan 167 The Forsaken Merman 170SONNETS
Austerity of Poetry 177 A Picture at Newstead 177 Rachel: I, II, III 178 Worldly Place 180 East London 180 West London 181 East and West 181 The Better Part 182 The Divinity 183 Immortality
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tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">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 The Strayed Reveller 201 Fragment of an "Antigone" 211 Fragment of Chorus of a "Dejaneira" 214 Early Death and Fame 215 Philomela 216 Urania 217 Euphrosyne 218 Calais Sands 219 Faded Leaves 1. 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
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tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">231 A Nameless Epitaph 232 Bacchanalia; or, The New Age 232 Epilogue to Lessing's Laocoön 236 Persistency of Poetry 243 A Caution to Poets 243 The Youth of Nature 243 The Youth of Man 247 Palladium 251 Progress 252 Revolutions 254 Self-dependence 255 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 332DRAMATIC POEMS
Merope, A Tragedy
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tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">347 Empedocles on Etna 436
LATER POEMS
Westminster Abbey 479 Geist's Grave 485 Poor Matthias 488 Kaiser Dead 495 Notes 501EARLY 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—
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!
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 mingling with his toil,
Still do thy sleepless ministers move on,
Man's fitful uproar mingling 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.
Still working, blaming still our vain turmoil,
Labourers that shall not fail, when man is gone.
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,[1]
And Tmolus hill, and Smyrna bay, though blind.
He much, the old man, who, clearest-soul'd of men,
Saw The Wide Prospect, and the Asian Fen,[1]
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
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;
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.
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,
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;
Making the heaven of heavens his dwelling-place,
Spares but the cloudy border of his base
To the foil'd searching of mortality;
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!
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.
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;
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—
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;
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?
Gods are we, bards, saints, heroes, if we will!—
Dumb judges, answer, truth or mockery?
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.
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
Spring the foundations of that shadowy throne
Where man's one
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nature, queen-like, sits alone,
Centred in a majestic unity;
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
Linking their coral arms under the sea,
Or cluster'd peaks with plunging gulfs between
Spann'd by aërial arches all of gold,
Whereo'er the chariot wheels of life are roll'd
In cloudy circles to eternity.
Whereo'er the chariot wheels of life are roll'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
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,
Urged; and to feed whose movement, spinning sand,
The feeble sons of pleasure set their hand;
And, in this vision of the general law,
Hast labour'd, but with purpose; hast become
Laborious, persevering, serious, firm—
For this, thy track, across the fretful foam
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.
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!
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;
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.
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!
Nature and man can never be fast friends.
Fool, if thou canst not pass her, rest her slave!
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,
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,
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
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 can."
To pain, to death, the bent of his own days.
Know thou the worst! So much, not more, he can."
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 life; if to despise
Those virtues, prized and practised by too few,
But prized, but loved, but eminent in you,
Man's fundamental life; if to despise
The barren optimistic sophistries
Of comfortable moles, whom what they do
Teaches the limit of the just and true
(And for such doing they require not eyes);
Of comfortable moles, whom what they do
Teaches the limit of the just and true
(And for such doing they require not eyes);
If sadness at the long heart-wasting show
Wherein earth's great ones are disquieted;
If thoughts, not idle, while before me flow
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.
If these are yours, if this is what you are,
Then am I yours, and what you feel, I share.