1 A free download from manybooks.net The Project Gutenberg eBook of Poetical Works of Matthew Arnold, by Matthew Arnold This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org 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 are listed at the end. 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 2 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 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 3 2. JOURNEY TO THE DEAD 111 3. FUNERAL 121 TRISTRAM AND ISEULT-- 1. TRISTRAM 138 2. ISEULT OF IRELAND 150 3. ISEULT OF BRITTANY 158 SAINT BRANDAN 165 THE NECKAN 167 THE FORSAKEN MERMAN 170 SONNETS 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 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 4 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 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 5 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 332 6 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 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. 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. Much he, whose friendship I not long since won, That halting slave, who in Nicopolis Taught Arrian, when Vespasian's brutal son 7 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; 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? WRITTEN IN BUTLER'S SERMONS Affections, Instincts, Principles, and Powers, 8 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 aërial arches all of gold, 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 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, 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; 9 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! 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 _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 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); 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. CONTINUED 10 Yet, when I muse on what life is, I seem Rather to patience prompted, than that proud Prospect of hope which France proclaims so loud-- France, famed in all great arts, in none supreme; Seeing this vale, this earth, whereon we dream, Is on all sides o'ershadow'd by the high Uno'erleap'd Mountains of Necessity, Sparing us narrower margin than we deem. Nor will that day dawn at a human nod, When, bursting through the network superposed By selfish occupation--plot and plan, Lust, avarice, envy--liberated man, All difference with his fellow-mortal closed, Shall be left standing face to face with God. RELIGIOUS ISOLATION TO THE SAME FRIEND Children (as such forgive them) have I known, Ever in their own eager pastime bent To make the incurious bystander, intent On his own swarming thoughts, an interest own-- Too fearful or too fond to play alone. Do thou, whom light in thine own inmost soul (Not less thy boast) illuminates, control Wishes unworthy of a man full-grown. What though the holy secret, which moulds thee, Mould not the solid earth? though never winds Have whisper'd it to the complaining sea, Nature's great law, and law of all men's minds?-- To its own impulse every creature stirs; Live by thy light, and earth will live by hers! MYCERINUS[2] "Not by the justice that my father spurn'd, Not for the thousands whom my father slew, Altars unfed and temples overturn'd, Cold hearts and thankless tongues, where thanks are due; Fell this dread voice from lips that cannot lie, Stern sentence of the Powers of Destiny. "I will unfold my sentence and my crime. My crime--that, rapt in reverential awe, I sate obedient, in the fiery prime Of youth, self-govern'd, at the feet of Law;