Poems by Arthur Hugh Clough
Sorted by title, showing title and first line
On grass, on gravel, in the sun,
Light words they were, and lightly, falsely said:
Sweet streamlet bason! at thy side
My wind is turned to bitter north,
Across the sea, along the shore,
Over a mountain slope with lentisk, and with abounding
‘Old things need not be therefore true,’
"Old things need not be therefore true,"
So spake the voice: and as with a single life
Whate’er you dream with doubt possest,
Whate’er you dream, with doubt possessed,
Or shall I say, Vain word, false thought,
Am I with you, or you with me?
Canto I.
CANTO II.
CANTO III.
CANTO IV.
CANTO V.
Oh, you are sick of self-love, Malvolio,
It was but some few nights ago
’Twas on a sunny summer day
O, richly soiled and richly sunned,
A Sequel
O happy they whose hearts receive
Say, will it, when our hairs are grey,
How in God’s name did Columbus get over
Come back, come back, behold with straining mast
Come home, come home! and where is home for me,
Come, Poet, come!
But that from slow dissolving pomps of dawn
SCENE I.
Scene I.
An interval of thirty years.
Duty that’s to say, complying,
Naples, 1849
So in the sinful streets, abstracted and alone,
I
Matthew and Mark and Luke and holy John
‘I don’t very well understand what it’s all about,’ said my uncle. ‘I won’t say I didn’t drop into a doze while the young man was drivelling through his latter soliloquies. But there was a great deal that was unmeaning, vague, and involved; and what
Said the Poet, I wouldn’t maintain,
Farewell, farewell! Her vans the vessel tries,
SCENE I.
Who is this man
If, when in cheerless wanderings, dull and cold,
O thou whose image in the shrine
Upon the water, in the boat,
On the mountain, in the woodland,
Go, foolish thoughts, and join the throng
Green fields of England! wheresoe’er
The grasses green of sweet content
Farewell, my Highland lassie! when the year returns around,
Hope evermore and believe, O man, for e’en as thy thought
How in all wonder Columbus got over,
Away, haunt thou me not,
Away, haunt thou me not,
Put forth thy leaf, thou lofty plane,
Put forth thy leaf, thou lofty plane,
Blessed are those who have not seen,
It is not sweet content, be sure,
It is not sweet content, be sure,
Each for himself is still the rule
The skies have sunk, and hid the upper snow
My sons, and ye the children of my sons,
These are the words of Jacob’s wives, the words
NAPOLEON.
To wear out heart, and nerves, and brain,
When panting sighs the bosom fill,
Thought may well be ever ranging,
A youth was I. An elder friend with me,
Mari Magno
Beside me, in the car, she sat,
In controversial foul impureness
In controversial foul impureness
O ship, ship, ship,
It may be true
O tell me, friends, while yet we part,
To spend uncounted years of pain,
To spend uncounted years of pain,
What voice did on my spirit fall,
‘I hope it is in good plain verse,’ said my uncle, ‘none of your hurry-scurry anapæsts, as you call them, in lines which sober people read for plain heroics. Nothing is more disagreeable than to say a line over two, or, it may be, three or four times
As ships, becalmed at eve, that lay
As ships, becalmed at eve, that lay
O only Source of all our light and life,
O happy mother! while the man wayworn
So I went wrong,
Say not the struggle naught availeth,
Say not, the struggle nought availeth,
Whence are ye, vague desires,
My beloved, is it nothing
I
Cease, empty Faith, the Spectrum saith,
As, at a railway junction, men
Youth, that went, is come again,
Some future day when what is now is not,
Farewell, farewell! Her vans the vessel tries,
That out of sight is out of mind
A Long-Vacation Pastoral
A Long-Vacation Pastoral
A Long-Vacation Pastoral
A Long-Vacation Pastoral
A Long-Vacation Pastoral
A Long-Vacation Pastoral
A Long-Vacation Pastoral
A Long-Vacation Pastoral
A Long-Vacation Pastoral
Love is fellow-service.
Edward and Jane a married couple were,
I
O let me love my love unto myself alone,
Come back again, my olden heart!
Thou shalt have one God only; -who
Thou shalt have one God only; who
Primitiæ, or Third Cousins.
Christian.
Mari Magno
The mighty ocean rolls and raves,
I
Lo, here is God, and there is God!
The human spirits saw I on a day,
I dreamed a dream: I dreamt that I espied,
Whence comest thou? shady lane, and why and how?
The silver Wedding! on some pensive ear
Hearken to me, ye mothers of my tent:
O stream descending to the sea,
Truth is a golden thread, seen here and there
Truth is a golden thread, seen here and there
“There is no God,” the wicked saith,
"There is no God," the wicked saith,
If that we thus are guilty doth appear,
I watched them from the window, thy children at their play,
What we, when face to face we see
What we, when face to face we see
Lips, lips, open!
I have seen higher holier things than these,
I
(I. 1-32.)
Ah, blame him not because he’s gay!
When on the primal peaceful blank profound,
Is it true, ye gods, who treat us
Were you with me, or I with you,
Across the sea, along the shore,
Where lies the land to which the ship would go?
Where lies the land to which the ship would go?
When the dews are earliest falling,
It fortifies my soul to know
When soft September brings again
Ye flags of Piccadilly,
Dance on, dance on, we see, we see
I
It fortifies my soul to know