| Matthew Arnold (1822–88). The Poems of Matthew Arnold, 1840–1867. 1909. | | | | New Poems, 1867 | | Palladium |
| | [First published 1867.]
SET where the upper streams of Simois flow | |
| Was the Palladium, high ’mid rock and wood; | |
| And Hector was in Ilium, far below, | |
| And fought, and saw it not, but there it stood. | |
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| It stood; and sun and moonshine rain’d their light | 5 |
| On the pure columns of its glen-built hall. | |
| Backward and forward roll’d the waves of fight | |
| Round Troy; but while this stood, Troy could not fall. | |
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| So, in its lovely moonlight, lives the soul. | |
| Mountains surround it, and sweet virgin air; | 10 |
| Cold plashing, past it, crystal waters roll; | |
| We visit it by moments, ah! too rare. | |
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| Men will renew the battle in the plain | |
| To-morrow; red with blood will Xanthus be; | |
| Hector and Ajax will be there again; | 15 |
| Helen will come upon the wall to see. | |
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| Then we shall rust in shade, or shine in strife, | |
| And fluctuate ’twixt blind hopes and blind despairs, | |
| And fancy that we put forth all our life, | |
| And never know how with the soul it fares. | 20 |
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| Still doth the soul, from its lone fastness high, | |
| Upon our life a ruling effluence send; | |
| And when it fails, fight as we will, we die, | |
| And while it lasts, we cannot wholly end. | | | | |
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