English Poetry III: From Tennyson to Whitman.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14. |
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| 706. The Better Part |
| | | Matthew Arnold (1822–1888) |
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| LONG fed on boundless hopes, O race of man, | |
| How angrily thou spurn’st all simpler fare! | |
| “Christ,” some one says, “was human as we are; | |
| No judge eyes us from Heaven, our sin to scan; | |
| We live no more, when we have done our span.” | 5 |
| “Well, then, for Christ,” thou answerest, “who can care? | |
| From sin, which Heaven records not, why forbear? | |
| Live we like brutes our life without a plan!” | |
| So answerest thou; but why not rather say: | |
| “Hath man no second life?—Pitch this one high! | 10 |
| Sits there no judge in Heaven, our sin to see?— | |
| More strictly, then, the inward judge obey! | |
| Was Christ a man like us? Ah! let us try | |
| If we then, too, can be such men as he!” | |
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