John Henry Newman (1801-1890). Chorus of the Elements. Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. 1922. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse

Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922.

Chorus of the Elements

By John Henry Newman (1801–1890)


MAN is permitted much
To scan and learn
In Nature’s frame;
Till he wellnigh can tame
Brute mischiefs, and can touch	5
Invisible things, and turn
All warring ills to purposes of good.
Thus, as a god below,
He can control
And harmonize what seems amiss to flow	10
As sever’d from the whole
And dimly understood.

But o’er the elements
One Hand alone,
One Hand hath sway.	15
What influence day by day
In straiter belt prevents
The impious Ocean thrown
Alternate o’er the ever-sounding shore?
Or who hath eye to trace	20
How the Plague came?
Fore-run the doublings of the Tempest’s race?
Or the Air’s weight and flame
On a set scale explore?

Thus God hath will’d	25
That Man, when fully skill’d,
Still gropes in twilight dim;
Encompass’d all his hours
By fearfull’st powers
Inflexible to him:	30
That so he may discern
His feebleness,
And e’en for Earth’s success
To Him in wisdom turn,
Who holds for us the keys of either home,	35
—Earth, and the world to come.