Page:The Poems and Prose remains of Arthur Hugh Clough, volume 2 (1869).djvu/209

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LIFE AND DUTY.
195
Was some good end designed
For man and womankind;
Ah yet! ye vague desires,
Ah yet!

The petals of to-day,
To-morrow fallen away,
Shall something leave instead,
To live when they are dead;
When you, ye vague desires,
Have vanished;

A something to survive,
Of you though it derive
Apparent earthly birth,
But of far other worth
Than you, ye vague desires,
Than you.

HIGH AND LOW.

The grasses green of sweet content
That spring, no matter high or low,
Where'er a living thing can grow,
On chilly hills and rocky rent,
And by the lowly streamlet's side—
Oh! why did e'er I turn from these?—
The lordly, tall, umbrageous trees,
That stand in high aspiring pride,
With massive bulk on high sustain
A world of boughs with leaf and fruits,
And drive their wide-extending roots
Deep down into the subject plain.