Page:The poetical works of Matthew Arnold, 1897.djvu/486

448 "But thou, whom fellowship of mood

Did make from haunts of strife

Come to my mountain solitude,

And learn my frustrate life;

"O thou, who, ere thy flying span

Was past of cheerful youth,

Didst find the solitary man,

And love his cheerless truth,—

"Despair not thou as I despaired,

Nor be cold gloom thy prison!

Forward the gracious hours have fared,

And see! the sun is risen!

"He breaks the winter of the past;

A green, new earth appears.

Millions, whose life in ice lay fast,

Have thoughts and smiles and tears.

"What though there still need effort, strife?

Though much be still unwon?

Yet warm it mounts, the hour of life;

Death's frozen hour is done.

"The world's great order dawns in sheen

After long darkness rude,

Divinelier imaged, clearer seen,

With happier zeal pursued.

"With hope extinct, and brow composed,

I marked the present die;

Its term of life was nearly closed,

Yet it had more than I.

"But thou, though to the world's new hour

Thou come with aspect marred,