Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.
Matthew Arnold. 18221888748. The Song of Callicles
THROUGH the black, rushing smoke-bursts, | |
Thick breaks the red flame. | |
All Etna heaves fiercely | |
Her forest-clothed frame. | |
Not here, O Apollo! | 5 |
Are haunts meet for thee. | |
But, where Helicon breaks down | |
In cliff to the sea. | |
Where the moon-silver’d inlets | |
Send far their light voice | 10 |
Up the still vale of Thisbe, | |
O speed, and rejoice! | |
On the sward at the cliff-top, | |
Lie strewn the white flocks; | |
On the cliff-side, the pigeons | 15 |
Roost deep in the rocks. | |
In the moonlight the shepherds, | |
Soft lull’d by the rills, | |
Lie wrapt in their blankets, | |
Asleep on the hills. | 20 |
—What forms are these coming | |
So white through the gloom? | |
What garments out-glistening | |
The gold-flower’d broom? | |
What sweet-breathing Presence | 25 |
Out-perfumes the thyme? | |
What voices enrapture | |
The night’s balmy prime?— | |
‘Tis Apollo comes leading | |
His choir, The Nine. | 30 |
—The Leader is fairest, | |
But all are divine. | |
They are lost in the hollows. | |
They stream up again. | |
What seeks on this mountain | 35 |
The glorified train?— | |
They bathe on this mountain, | |
In the spring by their road. | |
Then on to Olympus, | |
Their endless abode. | 40 |
—Whose praise do they mention: | |
Of what is it told?— | |
What will be for ever. | |
What was from of old. | |
First hymn they the Father | 45 |
Of all things: and then, | |
The rest of Immortals, | |
The action of men. | |
The Day in his hotness, | |
The strife with the palm; | 50 |
The Night in her silence, | |
The Stars in their calm. |