Page:The poetical works of Matthew Arnold, 1897.djvu/463

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THE GRANDE CHARTREUSE.
425

Of the Spirit in whom we exist,
Who alone is all things in one?


Spirit, who fillest us all!
Spirit, who utterest in each
New-coming son of mankind
Such of thy thoughts as thou wilt!
O thou, one of whose moods,
Bitter and strange, was the life
Of Heine,—his strange, alas!
His bitter life,—may a life
Other and milder be mine!
May'st thou a mood more serene,
Happier, have uttered in mine!
May'st thou the rapture of peace
Deep have imbreathed at its core;
Made it a ray of thy thought,
Made it a beat of thy joy!




STANZAS FROM THE GRANDE CHARTREUSE.

Through Alpine meadows soft-suffused
With rain, where thick the crocus blows,
Past the dark forges long disused,
The mule-track from Saint Laurent goes.
The bridge is crossed, and slow we ride,
Through forest, up the mountain side.


The autumnal evening darkens round,
The wind is up, and drives the rain;
While, hark! far down, with strangled sound

Doth the Dead Guier's stream complain,