| Matthew Arnold (1822–88). The Poems of Matthew Arnold, 1840–1867. 1909. | | | | New Poems, 1867 | | A Picture at Newstead |
| | | | Though the Muse be gone away, |
| Though she move not earth to-day, |
| Souls, erewhile who caught her word, |
| Ah! still harp on what they heard. |
[First published 1867.]
WHAT made my heart, at Newstead, fullest swell?— | |
| ’Twas not the thought of Byron, of his cry | |
| Stormily sweet, his Titan agony; | |
| It was the sight of that Lord Arundel | |
| |
| Who struck, in heat, the child he loved so well, | 5 |
| And the child’s reason flickered, and did die. | |
| Painted (he will’d it) in the gallery | |
| They hang; the picture doth the story tell. | |
| |
| Behold the stern, mail’d father, staff in hand! | |
| The little fair-hair’d son, with vacant gaze, | 10 |
| Where no more lights of sense or knowledge are! | |
| |
| Methinks the woe which made that father stand | |
| Baring his dumb remorse to future days, | |
| Was woe than Byron’s woe more tragic far. | | | | |
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