| Matthew Arnold (1822–88). The Poems of Matthew Arnold, 1840–1867. 1909. | | | | The Strayed Reveller, and Other Poems | | Sonnet. To a Friend |
| | | | [First published 1849. Reprinted 1853, ’54, ’57.] |
WHO 1 prop, thou ask’st, in these bad days, my mind? | |
| He much, the old man, who, clearest-soul’d of men, | |
| Saw The Wide Prospect, 2 and the Asian Fen, | |
| And Tmolus’ hill, and Smyrna’s bay, though blind. | |
| Much he, whose friendship I not long since won, | 5 |
| That halting slave, who in Nicopolis | |
| Taught Arrian, when Vespasian’s brutal son | |
| Clear’d Rome of what most sham’d him. But be his | |
| My special thanks, whose even-balanc’d soul, | |
| From first youth tested up to extreme old age, | 10 |
| Business could not make dull, nor Passion wild: | |
| Who saw life steadily, and saw it whole: | |
| The mellow glory of the Attic stage; | |
| Singer of sweet Colonus, and its child. | |
| | | Note 1. The three referred to are Homer, Epictetus, and Sophocles. Vespasian’s brutal son (l. 7) is Domitian. [back] | | Note 2. [Greek]. [back] | | |
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