Page:The poetical works of Matthew Arnold, 1897.djvu/74

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THE WORLD'S TRIUMPHS.

YOUTH'S AGITATIONS.

When I shall be divorced, some ten years hence,
From this poor present self which I am now;
When youth has done its tedious vain expense
Of passions that forever ebb and flow:


Shall I not joy youth's heats are left behind,
And breathe more happy in an even clime?
Ah, no! for then I shall begin to find
A thousand virtues in this hated time!


Then I shall wish its agitations back,
And all its thwarting currents of desire;
Then I shall praise the heat which then I lack,
And call this hurrying fever, generous fire;


And sigh that one thing only has been lent
To youth and age in common,—discontent.




THE WORLD'S TRIUMPHS.

So far as I conceive the world's rebuke
To him addressed who would recast her new,
Not from herself her fame of strength she took,
But from their weakness who would work her rue.


"Behold," she cries, "so many rages lulled,
So many fiery spirits quite cooled down;
Look how so many valors, long undulled,
After short commerce with me, fear my frown!