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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


SHAKESPEARE by MATTHEW ARNOLD

Poet Analysis

First Line: OTHERS ABIDE OUR QUESTION. THOU ART FREE
Last Line: FIND THEIR SOLE VOICE IN THAT VICTORIOUS BROW.
Subject(s): DRAMATISTS; PLAYS & PLAYWRIGHTS ; POETRY & POETS; SHAKESPEARE, WILLIAM (1564-1616); DRAMATISTS;

Others abide our question. Thou art free.
We ask and ask - thou smilest and art still,
Out-topping knowledge. For the loftiest hill,
Who to the stars uncrowns his majesty,
Planting his stedfast footsteps in the sea,
Making the heaven of heavens his dwelling-place,
Spares but the cloudy border of his base
To the foiled searching of mortality;
And thou, who didst the stars and sunbeams know,
Self-schooled, self-scanned, self-honored, self-secure,
Didst tread on earth unguessed at - better so!
All pains the immortal spirit must endure,
All weakness that impairs, all griefs that bow,
Find their sole voice in that victorious brow.



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