Page:The poetical works of Matthew Arnold, 1897.djvu/60

22 Her life was turning, turning,

In mazes of heat and sound;

But for peace her soul was yearning,

And now peace laps her round.

Her cabined, ample spirit,

It fluttered and failed for breath;

To-night it doth inherit

The vasty hall of death.

YOUTH AND CALM.

'Tis death! and peace indeed is here,

And ease from shame, and rest from fear

There's nothing can dismarble now

The smoothness of that limpid brow.

But is a calm like this, in truth,

The crowning end of life and youth?

And when this boon rewards the dead,

Are all debts paid, has all been said?

And is the heart of youth so light,

Its step so firm, its eye so bright,

Because on its hot brow there blows

A wind of promise and repose

From the far grave, to which it goes;

Because it has the hope to come,

One day, to harbor in the tomb?

Ah, no! the bliss youth dreams is one

For daylight, for the cheerful sun,

For feeling nerves and living breath;

Youth dreams a bliss on this side death