| Matthew Arnold (1822–88). The Poems of Matthew Arnold, 1840–1867. 1909. | | | | New Poems, 1867 | | The Progress of Poesy |
| | A Variation
[First published 1867.]
YOUTH rambles on life’s arid mount, | |
| And strikes the rock, and finds the vein, | |
| And brings the water from the fount, | |
| The fount which shall not flow again. | |
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| The man mature with labour chops | 5 |
| For the bright stream a channel grand, | |
| And sees not that the sacred drops | |
| Ran off and vanish’d out of hand. | |
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| And then the old man totters nigh | |
| And feebly rakes among the stones. | 10 |
| The mount is mute, the channel dry; | |
| And down he lays his weary bones. | | | | |
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