Matthew Arnold (1822–88). The Poems of Matthew Arnold, 1840–1867. 1909.
Poems; A New Edition. 1853The Church of Brou. II. The Church
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Of the new Pile, the sunlight shines.
The stream goes leaping by.
The hills are cloth’d with pines sun-proof.
Mid bright green fields, below the pines,
Stands the Church on high.
What Church is this, from men aloof?
’Tis the Church of Brou.
Crossing the stream, the kine are seen
Round the wall to stray;
The churchyard wall that clips the square
Of shaven hill-sward trim and green
Where last year they lay.
But all things now are order’d fair
Round the Church of Brou.
The Alpine peasants, two and three,
Climb up here to pray.
Burghers and dames, at summer’s prime,
Ride out to church from Chambery,
Dight with mantles gay.
But else it is a lonely time
Round the Church of Brou.
From the wall’d town beyond the pass,
Down the mountain way.
And then you hear the organ’s hum,
You hear the white-rob’d priest say mass,
And the people pray.
But else the woods and fields are dumb
Round the Church of Brou.
The people to the nave repair
Round the Tomb to stray.
And marvel at the Forms of stone,
And praise the chisell’d broideries rare.
Then they drop away.
The Princely Pair are left alone
In the Church of Brou.