Page:The poetical works of Matthew Arnold, 1897.djvu/271

Rh Like us, the lightning-fires

Love to have scope and play;

The stream, like us, desires

An unimpeded way;

Like us, the Libyan wind delights to roam at large.

Streams will not curb their pride

The just man not to entomb,

Nor lightnings go aside

To give his virtues room;

Nor is that wind less rough which blows a good man's barge.

Nature, with equal mind,

Sees all her sons at play;

Sees man control the wind,

The wind sweep man away;

Allows the proudly riding and the foundering bark.

And, lastly, though of ours

No weakness spoil our lot,

Though the non-human powers

Of nature harm us not,

The ill deeds of other men make often our life dark.

What were the wise man's plan?

Through this sharp, toil-set life,

To fight as best he can,

And win what's won by strife.

But we an easier way to cheat our pains have found.

Scratched by a fall, with moans

As children of weak age

Lend life to the dumb stones

Whereon to vent their rage,

And bend their little fists, and rate the senseless ground;