Page:The poetical works of Matthew Arnold, 1897.djvu/526

488 A life—whose ways no human thought could scan;

A life—that was not as the life of man;

A life—that wrote its purpose with a sword,

Moulding itself into action, not in word!

Rent with tumultuous thoughts, whose conflict rung

Deep through his soul, and chok'd his faltering tongue;

A heart that reck'd not of the countless dead,

That strew'd the blood-stain'd path where Empire led;

A daring hand, that shrunk not to fulfil

The thought that spurr'd it; and a dauntless will,

Bold action's parent; and a piercing ken

Through the dark chambers of the hearts of men,

To read each thought, and teach that master-mind

The fears and hopes and passions of mankind;

All these were thine—oh thought of fear!—and thou,

Stretch'd on that bed of death, art nothing now.

Then all his vision faded, and his soul

Sprang from its sleep! and lo! the waters roll

Once more beneath him; and the fluttering sail,

Where the dark ships rode proudly, woo'd the gale;

And the wind murmur'd round him, and he stood

Once more alone beside the gleaming flood.

THE HAYSWATER BOAT.

desolate and wild.

Black, chafing water: and afloat,

And lonely as a truant child

In a waste wood, a single boat:

No mast, no sails are set thereon;

It moves, but never moveth on:

And welters like a human thing

Amid the wild waves weltering.