Poetical Works of Matthew Arnold.

by Matthew Arnold.

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 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 pa.s.sion 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 pa.s.s'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 G.o.dlike power are in us still; G.o.ds 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 G.o.d'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 cl.u.s.ter'd peaks with plunging gulfs between

Spann'd by aerial 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