Page:The poetical works of Matthew Arnold, 1897.djvu/46

8 What though the holy secret, which moulds thee,

Moulds not the solid earth? though never winds

Have whispered it to the complaining sea,

Nature's great law, and law of all men's minds?

To its own impulse every creature stirs:

Live by thy light, and earth will live by hers!

MYCERINUS.2

"Not by the justice that my father spurned,

Not for the thousands whom my father slew,

Altars unfed and temples overturned,

Cold hearts and thankless tongues, where thanks are due;

Fell this dread voice from lips that cannot lie,

Stern sentence of the Powers of Destiny.

"I will unfold my sentence and my crime.

My crime,—that, rapt in reverential awe,

I sate obedient, in the fiery prime

Of youth, self-governed, at the feet of Law;

Ennobling this dull pomp, the life of kings,

By contemplation of diviner things.

"My father loved injustice, and lived long;

Crowned with gray hairs he died, and full of sway.

I loved the good he scorned, and hated wrong—

The gods declare my recompense to-day.

I looked for life more lasting, rule more high;

And when six years are measured, lo, I die!