Still, still let me, as I gaze upon you, Feel my soul becoming vast like you!" From the intense, clear, star-sown vault of heaven, Over the lit sea's unquiet way, 12 In the rustling night-air came the answer: "Wouldst thou be as these are? Live as they, 16 "Unaffrighted by the silence round them, Undistracted by the sights they see, These demand not that the things without them Yield them love, amusement, sympathy. 20 "And with joy the stars perform their shining, And the sea its long moon-silver'd roll; "Bounded by themselves, and unregardful O air-born voice! long since, severely clear, A cry like thine in mine own heart I hear: "Resolve to be thyself; and know that he, Who finds himself, loses his misery!" 1852. Matthew Arnold. 24 28 32 THE FUTURE A WANDERER is man from his birth. On the breast of the river of Time; He spreads out his arms to the light, As what he sees is, so have his thoughts been, Whether he wakes Where the snowy mountainous pass, Echoing the screams of the eagles, Of the new-born clear-flowing stream; Whether he first sees light Where the river in gleaming rings Sluggishly winds through the plain; Whether in sound of the swallowing sea- So is the mind of the man. Vainly does each, as he glides, Fable and dream Of the lands which the river of Time Had left ere he woke on its breast, Or shall reach when his eyes have been closed. Only the tract where he sails 10 20 He wots of; only the thoughts, Raised by the objects he passes, are his. Who can see the green earth any more In the sunshine, unworn by the plough? The tribes who then roam'd on her breast, What girl Now reads in her bosom as clear What bard. At the height of his vision, can deem As flashing as Moses felt When he lay in the night by his flock Can rise and obey The beck of the Spirit like him? This tract which the river of Time 50 40 30 With a thousand cries is its stream. And we on its breast, our minds Are confused as the cries which we hear, Changing and shot as the sights which we see. And we say that repose has fled For ever the course of the river of Time. That cities will crowd to its edge In a blacker, incessanter line; That the din will be more on its banks, Flatter the plain where it flows, That never will those on its breast Drink of the feeling of quiet again. But what was before us we know not, Haply, the river of Time As it grows, as the towns on its marge And the width of the waters, the hush Of the gray expanse where he floats, 60 70 Freshening its current and spotted with foam 80 As it draws to the Ocean, may strike Peace to the soul of the man on its breast As the pale waste widens around him, As the stars come out, and the night-wind Murmurs and scents of the infinite sea. 1852. Matthew Arnold. PALLADIUM SET where the upper streams of Simois flow Was the Palladium, high 'mid rock and wood; And Hector was in Ilium, far below, And fought, and saw it not-but there it stood! 4 It stood, and sun and moonshine rain'd their light On the pure columns of its glen-built hall. Backward and forward roll'd the waves of fight Round Troy-but while this stood, Troy could not fall. So, in its lovely moonlight, lives the soul. We shall renew the battle in the plain 12 |