Page:The poetical works of Matthew Arnold, 1897.djvu/420

382 Screened is this nook o'er the high, half-reaped field,

And here till sundown, shepherd! will I be.

Through the thick corn the scarlet poppies peep,

And round green roots and yellowing stalks I see

Pale blue convolvulus in tendrils creep;

And air-swept lindens yield

Their scent, and rustle down their perfumed showers

Of bloom on the bent grass where I am laid,

And bower me from the August-sun with shade;

And the eye travels down to Oxford's towers.

And near me on the grass lies Glanvil's book.

Come, let me read the oft-read tale again!

The story of that Oxford scholar poor,

Of shining parts and quick inventive brain,

Who, tired of knocking at preferment's door,

One summer-morn forsook

His friends, and went to learn the gypsy-lore,

And roamed the world with that wild brotherhood,

And came, as most men deemed, to little good,

But came to Oxford and his friends no more.

But once, years after, in the country-lanes,

Two scholars, whom at college erst he knew,

Met him, and of his way of life inquired;

Whereat he answered, that the gypsy-crew,

His mates, had arts to rule as they desired

The workings of men's brains,

And they can bind them to what thoughts they will.

"And I," he said, "the secret of their art,

When fully learned, will to the world impart;

But it needs Heaven-sent moments for this skill."