The poetical works of Matthew Arnold Author:Matthew Arnold Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: EARLY POEMS. SONNETS. QUIET WORK. One lesson, Nature, let me learn of tl1ee, One lesson which in every wind is blown, One lesson of two duties kept at o... more »ne Though the loud world proclaim their enmity, Of toil unsevered from tranquillity; Of labor, that in lasting fruit outgrows Far noisier schemes, accomplished in repose, Too great for haste, too high for rivalry. Yes, while on earth a thousand discords ring, Man's senseless uproar mingling with his toil, Still do thy quiet ministers move on, Their glorious tasks in silence perfecting; Still working, blaming still our vain turmoil, Laborers that shall not fail, when man is gone. TO A FRIEND. Who prop, thou ask'st, in these bad days, my mind?— He much, the old man, who, clearest-souled of men, Saw The Wide Prospect, and the Asian Fen,1 And Tmolus hill, and Smyrna bay, though blind. Much he, wnose friendship I not long s1nce won, That halting slave, who in Nicopolis Taught Arrian, when Vespasian's brutal son Cleared Rome of what most shamed him. But be his My special thanks, whose even-balanced soul, From first youth tested up to extreme old age, Business could not make dull, nor passion wild; Who saw life steadily, and saw it whole; The mellow glory of the Attic stage, Singer of sweet Colonus, and its chil SHAKSPEARE. Others abide our question. Thou art free. We ask and ask. Thou smilest, and art still, Out-topping knowledge. For the loftiest hill, Who to the stars uncrowns his majesty, Planting his steadfast footsteps in the sea, Making the heaven of heavens his dwelling-place. Spares but the cloudy border of his base To the foiled searching of mortality; And them, who didst the stars and sunbeams know, Self-schooled, self-scanned, self-honored, self-secure, Didst tread on ear...« less