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CLOUGH

LIST OF REFERENCES

EDITIONS

POEMS, with Memoir by Charles Eliot Norton, Ticknor & Fields, 1862.-POEMS AND PROSE REMAINS, with Memoir by Mrs. Clough, 2 volumes, London, 1869.- POEMS, 1 volume, The Macmillan Company, 1888. SELECTIONS from the Poems, 1 volume, 1894 (Golden Treasury Series). PROSE REMAINS, 1 volume, The Macmillan Company (1862), 1888.

BIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES

Memoirs by * C. E. Norton and by Mrs. Clough, in the editions above mentioned. SHAIRP (J. C.), Portraits of Friends. STEPHEN (Leslie), Clough; in the Dictionary of National Biography, Vol. XI, 1887.

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CRITICISM

ARNOLD (Matthew), On Translating Homer, § III; Last Words on Translating Homer, last two pages. - *BAGEHOT (W.), Literary Studies, Vol. II, 1879. BIJVANCK (W. G. C.), Poezie en Leven in de 19de Eeuw: Studien op het Gebied der Letterkunde, Haarlem, 1889.-*BROOKE (S. A.), Four Victorian Poets, 1908. - DOWDEN (E.), Studies in Literature: Transcendental Movement in Literature, 1878.HUDSON (W. H.), Studies in Interpretation, 1893. *HUTTON (R. H.), Literary Essays, 1871, 1888. -MABIE (H. W.), My Study Fire, Second Series. OLIPHANT (Margaret), HUTTON (R. H.), Brief Literary Criticisms, 1906: The Unpopularity of Clough; Amiel and Clough.- Victorian Age in Literature.- PATMORE (C.), Principle in Art.- PERRY (T. S.), in Atlantic Monthly, 1875, p. 409.ROBERTSON (J. M.), New Essays towards a Critical Method, 1897.-*SIDGWICK (Henry), Miscellaneous Essays and Addresses, 1905. STEDMAN (E. C.), Victorian Poets, p. 243-4. WADDINGTON (S.), Arthur Hugh Clough, a Monograph, 1883. — WARD (T. H.), English Poets, Vol. IV.

ARMSTRONG (R. A.), Faith and Doubt.-MACDONALD (G.), England's Antiphon. SCUDDER (V. D.), Life of the Spirit.SEEBURG (L.), Ueber A. H. Clough. SHARP (Amy), Victorian Poets. - SWANWICK (A.), Poets the Interpreters of their Age.

TRIBUTES IN VERSE

* ARNOLD, The Scholar Gipsy; Thyrsis. - * LOWELL, Agassiz. Section

III.

CLOUGH

IN A LECTURE-ROOM

AWAY, haunt thou not me,
Thou vain Philosophy!
Little hast thou bestead.
Save to perplex the head,
And leave the spirit dead.

Unto thy broken cisterns wherefore go, While from the secret treasure-depths below,

Fed by the skiey shower,

And clouds that sink and rest on hilltops high,

Wisdom at once, and Power,
Are welling, bubbling forth, unseen,
incessantly?

Why labor at the dull mechanic oar,
When the fresh breeze is blowing,
And the strong current flowing,
Right onward to the Eternal Shore?
1840.

BLANK MISGIVINGS

How often sit I, poring o'er

My strange distorted youth, Seeking in vain, in all my store, One feeling based on truth; Amid the maze of petty life,

A clue whereby to move, A spot whereon in toil and strife To dare to rest and love.

1849.

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Amid the things allowed thee live and love;

Some day thou shalt it view.

1841. 1349.

QUA CURSUM VENTUS
As ships, becalmed at eve, that lay
With canvas drooping, side by side,
Two towers of sail at dawn of day

Are scarce long leagues apart descried; When fell the night, upsprung the breeze,

And all the darkling hours they plied, Nor dreamt but each the self-same seas By each was cleaving, side by side:

E'en so, but why the tale reveal

Of those, whom year by year unchanged,

Brief absence joined anew to feel,
Astounded, soul from soul estranged?

At dead of night their sails were filled,
And onward each rejoicing steered-
Ah, neither blame, for neither willed,
Or wist, what first with dawn ap-
peared!

To veer, how vain! On, onward strain, Brave barks! In light, in darkness too,

Through winds and tides one compass guides

To that, and your own selves, be true.

But O blithe breeze; and O great seas, Though ne'er, that earliest parting past,

On your wide plain they join again,
Together lead them home at last.

One port, methought, alike they sought,
One purpose hold where'er they fare,-
O bounding breeze, O rushing seas!
At last, at last, unite them there!

THE NEW SINAI

Lo, here is God, and there is God! Believe it not, O Man;

1849.

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In joy and hasty fear,

"He is!" aloud replied the crowd, "Is here, and here, and here."

"He is! They are!" in distance seen On yon Olympus high,

In those Avernian woods abide
And walk this azure sky:

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They are! They are!"-to every show

Its eyes the baby turned, And blazes sacrificial, tall,

On thousand altars burned:
"They are! They are!"-On Sinai's top
Far seen the lightnings shone,
The thunder broke, a trumpet spoke,
And God said, "I am One."

God spake it out, "I, God, am One;"
The unheeding ages ran.
And baby-thoughts again, again,

Have dogged the growing man:
And as of old from Sinai's top

God said that God is One.
By Science strict so speaks He now
To tell us, There is None!

Earth goes by chemic forces; Heaven's
A Mécanique Céleste!

And heart and mind of human kind

A watch-work as the rest!

Is this a Voice, as was the Voice,
Whose speaking told abroad,
When thunder pealed, and mountain
reeled,

The ancient truth of God?

Ah, not the Voice; 'tis but the cloud,
The outer-darkness dense,

Where image none, nor e'er was seen
Similitude of sense.

'Tis but the cloudy darkness dense
That wrapt the Mount around;
While in amaze the people stays,
To hear the Coming Sound.

Is there no prophet-soul the while
To dare, sublimely meek,

Within the shroud of blackest cloud
The Deity to seek?

'Midst atheistic systems dark,

And darker hearts' despair,

That soul has heard percliance His word,

And on the dusky air

His skirts, as passed He by, to see
Hath strained on their behalf,
Who on the plain, with dance amain,
Adore the Golden Calf.

'Tis but the cloudy darkness dense;
Though blank the tale it tells,
No God, no Truth! yet He, in sooth,
Is there within it dwells;
Within the sceptic darkness deep
He dwells that none may see,
Till idol forms and idle thoughts

Have passed and ceased to be:

No God, no Truth! ah though, in sooth
So stand the doctrine's half:
On Egypt's track return not back,
Nor own the Golden Calf.

Take better part, with manlier heart,
Thine adult spirit can;

No God, no Truth, receive it ne'er-
Believe it ne'er-O Man!

But turn not then to seek again

What first the ill began;

No God, it saith; ah, wait in faith
God's self-completing plan;
Receive it not, but leave it not,
And wait it out, O man!

"The Man that went the cloud within
Is gone and vanished quite;
He cometh not," the people cries,
"Nor bringeth God to sight:
Lo these thy gods, that safety give,
Adore and keep the feast!"
Deluding and deluded cries

The Prophet's brother-Priest:
And Israel all bows down to fall
Before the gilded beast.

Devout, indeed! that priestly creed,
O Man, reject as sin;

The clouded hill attend thou still,
And him that went within.
He yet shall bring some worthy thing
For waiting souls to see:

Some sacred word that he hath heard
Their light and life shall be ;
Some lofty part, than which the heart
Adopt no nobler can,

Thou shalt receive, thou shalt believe
And thou shalt do, O Man!
1845. 1869.

THE QUESTIONING SPIRIT

THE human spirits saw I on a day, Sitting and looking each a different way; And hardly tasking, subtly questioning,

Another spirit went around the ring To each and each: and as he ceased his say,

Each after each, I heard them singly sing,

Some querulously high, some softly, sadly low,

We know not-what avails to know? We know not-wherefore need we know? This answer gave they still unto his suing, We know not, let us do as we are doing. Dost thou not know that these things only 'seem ?-

I know not, let me dream my dream. Are dust and ashes fit to make a treasure?

I know not, let me take my pleasure. What shall avail the knowledge thou hast sought?--

I know not, let me think my thought. What is the end of strife?

I know not, let me live my life.
How many days or e'er thou mean'st to
move?-

I know not, let me love my love.
Were not things old once new?--
I know not, let me do as others do.
And when the rest were over past,

I know not, I will do my duty, said the last.

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