Page:The poetical works of Matthew Arnold, 1897.djvu/88

50 So pilgrims, bound for Mecca, prayed

At burning noon; so warriors said,

Scarfed with the cross, who watched the miles

Of dust which wreathed their struggling files

Down Lydian mountains; so, when snows

Round Alpine summits, eddying, rose,

The Goth, bound Rome-wards; so the Hun,

Crouched on his saddle, while the sun

Went lurid down o'er flooded plains

Through which the groaning Danube strains

To the drear Euxine: so pray all,

Whom labors, self-ordained, inthrall;

Because they to themselves propose

On this side the all-common close

A goal which, gained, may give repose.

So pray they; and to stand again

Where they stood once, to them were pain;

Pain to thread back and to renew

Past straits, and currents long steered through.

But milder natures, and more free,—

Whom an unblamed serenity

Hath freed from passions, and the state

Of struggle these necessitate;

Whom schooling of the stubborn mind

Hath made, or birth hath found, resigned,—

These mourn not, that their goings pay

Obedience to the passing day.

These claim not every laughing hour

For handmaid to their striding power;

Each in her turn, with torch upreared,

To await their march; and when appeared,

Through the cold gloom, with measured race,

To usher for a destined space