| Matthew Arnold (1822–88). The Poems of Matthew Arnold, 1840–1867. 1909. | | | | New Poems, 1867 | | Anti-Desperation |
| | [First published 1867.]
LONG fed on boundless hopes, O race of man, | |
| How angrily thou spurn’st all simpler fare! | |
| Christ, some one says, was human as we are; | |
| No judge eyes us from heaven, our sin to scan; | |
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| We line no more, when we have done our span. | 5 |
| ‘Well, then, for Christ’, thou answerest, ‘who can care? | |
| ‘From sin, which heaven records not, why forbear? | |
| ‘Live we like brutes our life without a plan!’ | |
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| So answerest thou; but why not rather say: | |
| ‘Hath man no second life?—Pitch this one high! | 10 |
| ‘Sits there no judge in heaven, our sin to see?— | |
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| ‘More strictly, then, the inward judge obey! | |
| ‘Was Christ a man like us?—Ah! let us try | |
| ‘If we then, too, can be such men as he!’ | | | | |
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