| Matthew Arnold (1822–88). The Poems of Matthew Arnold, 1840–1867. 1909. | | | | The Strayed Reveller, and Other Poems | | Sonnets: To a Republican Friend (Continued) |
| | [First published 1849. Reprinted 1853, ’54, ’57.]
YET, when I muse on what life is, I seem | |
| Rather to patience prompted, than that proud | |
| Prospect of hope which France proclaims so loud, | |
| France, fam’d in all great arts, in none supreme. | |
| Seeing this Vale, this Earth, whereon we dream, | 5 |
| Is on all sides o’ershadow’d by the high | |
| Uno’erleap’d Mountains of Necessity, | |
| Sparing us narrower margin than we deem. | |
| Nor will that day dawn at a human nod, | |
| When, bursting through the network superpos’d | 10 |
| By selfish occupation—plot and plan, | |
| Lust, avarice, envy—liberated man, | |
| All difference with his fellow man compos’d, | |
| Shall be left standing face to face with God. | | | | |
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