English Poetry III: From Tennyson to Whitman.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14. |
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| 707. Worldly Place |
| | | Matthew Arnold (1822–1888) |
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| EVEN in a palace, life may be led well! | |
| So spake the imperial sage, purest of men, | |
| Marcus Aurelius. But the stifling den | |
| Of common life, where, crowded up pell-mell, | |
| Our freedom for a little bread we sell, | 5 |
| And drudge under some foolish master’s ken | |
| Who rates us if we peer outside our pen— | |
| Match’d with a palace, is not this a hell? | |
| Even in a palace! On his truth sincere, | |
| Who spoke these words, no shadow ever came; | 10 |
| And when my ill-school’d spirit is aflame | |
| Some nobler, ampler stage of life to win, | |
| I’ll stop, and say: “There were no succor here! | |
| The aids to noble life are all within.” | |
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