| Matthew Arnold (1822–88). The Poems of Matthew Arnold, 1840–1867. 1909. | | | | The Strayed Reveller, and Other Poems | | The Voice |
| | [First published 1849.]
AS the kindling glances, | |
| Queen-like and clear, | |
| Which the bright moon lances | |
| From her tranquil sphere | |
| At the sleepless waters | 5 |
| Of a lonely mere, | |
| On the wild whirling waves, mournfully, mournfully, | |
| Shiver and die. | |
| As the tears of sorrow | |
| Mothers have shed— | 10 |
| Prayers that to-morrow | |
| Shall in vain be sped | |
| When the flower they flow for | |
| Lies frozen and dead— | |
| Fall on the throbbing brow, fall on the burning breast, | 15 |
| Bringing no rest. | |
| |
| Like bright waves that fall | |
| With a lifelike motion | |
| On the lifeless margin of the sparkling Ocean:— | |
| A wild rose climbing up a mould’ring wall— | 20 |
| A gush of sunbeams through a ruin’d hall— | |
| Strains of glad music at a funeral:— | |
| So sad, and with so wild a start | |
| To this long sober’d heart, | |
| So anxiously and painfully, | 25 |
| So drearily and doubtfully | |
| And, oh, with such intolerable change | |
| Of thought, such contrast strange, | |
| O unforgotten Voice, thy whispers come, | |
| Like wanderers from the world’s extremity, | 30 |
| Unto their ancient home. | |
| |
| In vain, all, all in vain, | |
| They beat upon mine ear again, | |
| Those melancholy tones so sweet and still; | |
| Those lute-like tones which in long distant years | 35 |
| Did steal into mine ears: | |
| Blew such a thrilling summons to my will | |
| Yet could not shake it: | |
| Drain’d all the life my full heart had to spill; | |
| Yet could not break it. | 40 | | | |
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