English Poetry III: From Tennyson to Whitman.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14. |
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| 702. Shakespeare |
| | | Matthew Arnold (1822–1888) |
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| OTHERS abide our question. Thou art free. | |
| We ask and ask: Thou smilest and art still, | |
| Out-topping knowledge. For the loftiest hill | |
| That to the stars uncrowns his majesty, | |
| Planting his steadfast footsteps in the sea, | 5 |
| Making the heaven of heavens his dwelling-place, | |
| Spares but the cloudy border of his base | |
| To the foil’d searching of mortality; | |
| And thou, who didst the stars and sunbeams know, | |
| Self-school’d, self-scann’d, self-honour’d, self-secure, | 10 |
| Didst walk on earth unguess’d at. Better so! | |
| All pains the immortal spirit must endure, | |
| All weakness that impairs, all griefs that bow, | |
| Find their sole voice in that victorious brow. | |
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