Page:The poetical works of Matthew Arnold, 1897.djvu/522

484 Like frozen winds on southern vales that blow

From a far land—the children of the snow—

O'er flowering plain and blossom'd meadow fling

The cold dull shadow of their icy wing.

Then Fancy's roving visions, bold and free,

A moment dispossess'd reality.

All airy hopes that idle hearts can frame,

Like dreams between two sorrows, went and came:

Fond hearts that fain would clothe the unwelcome truth

Of toilsome manhood in the dreams of youth,

To bend in rapture at some idle throne,

Some lifeless soulless phantom of their own;

Some shadowy vision of a tranquil life,

Of joys unclouded, years unstirr'd by strife;

Of sleep unshadow'd by a dream of woe;

Of many a lawny hill, and streams with silver flow;

Of giant mountains by the western main,

The sunless forest, and the sealike plain;

Those lingering hopes of coward hearts, that still

Would play the traitor to the steadfast will,

One moment's space, perchance, might charm his eye

From the stern future, and the years gone by.

One moment's space might waft him far away

To western shores—the death-place of the day!

Might paint the calm, sweet peace—the rest of home,

Far o'er the pathless waste of laboring foam—

Peace, that recall'd his childish hours anew,

More calm, more deep, than childhood ever knew!

Green happy places, like a flowery lea

Between the barren mountains and the stormy sea.

O pleasant rest, if once the race were run!

O happy slumber, if the day were done!