Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895.
Matthew Arnold 1822–88The World and the Quietist
Arnold-M“W
Hath finally inclin’d,
Why,” you say, Critias, “be debating still?
Why, with these mournful rhymes
Learn’d in more languid climes,
Blame our activity
Who, with such passionate will,
Are what we mean to be?”
(For Fate decreed it so),
Long since the world hath set its heart to live;
Long since, with credulous zeal
It turns life’s mighty wheel,
Still doth for laborers send
Who still their labor give,
And still expects an end.
With no ungrateful sound
Do adverse voices fall on the world’s ear.
Deafen’d by his own stir
The rugged laborer
Caught not till then a sense
So glowing and so near
Of his omnipotence.
In Susa’s palace proud,
A white-rob’d slave stole to the Great King’s side.
He spake—the Great King heard;
Felt the slow-rolling word
Swell his attentive soul;
Breath’d deeply as it died,
And drain’d his mighty bowl.