Page:The poetical works of Matthew Arnold, 1897.djvu/410

372 More for this land's sake grieve I, than mine own.

I chafe not with thee, that thy hate endures,

Nor bend myself too low, to make it yield.

What I have done is done; by my own deed,

Neither exulting nor ashamed, I stand.

Why should this heart of mine set mighty store

By the construction and report of men?

Not men's good word hath made me what I am.

Alone I master'd power; and alone,

Since so thou wilt, I dare maintain it still.

THE CHORUS.

Did I then waver

(O woman's judgment!)

Misled by seeming

Success of crime?

And ask, if sometimes

The Gods, perhaps, allow'd you,

O lawless daring of the strong,

O self-will recklessly indulged?

Not time, not lightning,

Not rain, not thunder,

Efface the endless

Decrees of Heaven—

Make Justice alter,

Revoke, assuage her sentence,

Which dooms dread ends to dreadful deeds,

And violent deaths to violent men.

But the signal example

Of invariableness of justice

Our glorious founder