Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE BETTER PART, by MATTHEW ARNOLD Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Long fed on boundless hopes, o race of man Last Line: If we then, too, can be such men as he!' Variant Title(s): Anti-desperation Subject(s): Jesus Christ | ||||||||
LONG fed on boundless hopes, O race of man, How angrily thou spurn'st all simpler fare! Christ, some one says, was human as we are; No judge eyes us from heaven, our sin to scan; We live no more, when we have done our span. 'Well, then, for Christ,' thou answerest, 'who can care? 'From sin, which heaven records not, why forbear? 'Live we like brutes our life without a plan!' So answerest thou; but why not rather say: 'Hath man no second life?--Pitch this one high! 'Sits there no judge in heaven, our sin to see?-- 'More strictly, then, the inward judge obey! 'Was Christ a man like us?--Ah! let us try 'If we then, too, can be such men as he!' | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE GREEN CHRIST by ANDREW HUDGINS MEDITATION ON SAVIORS by ROBINSON JEFFERS COMPANIONSHIP by MALTBIE DAVENPORT BABCOCK TO A WREN ON CALVARY by LARRY LEVIS THE TRANSFIGURATION by EDWIN MUIR SOUNDS OF THE RESURRECTED DEAD MAN'S FOOTSTEPS (#3): 1. BEAST, PEACH.. by MARVIN BELL |
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