Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TO A REPUBLICAN FRIEND, 1848, by MATTHEW ARNOLD


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TO A REPUBLICAN FRIEND, 1848, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: God knows it, I am with you. If to prize
Last Line: Then am I yours, and what you feel, I share.
Subject(s): Clough, Arthur Hugh (1819-1861); Freedom; Liberty


God knows it, I am with you. If to prize
Those virtues, priz'd and practis'd by too few,
But priz'd, but lov'd, but eminent in you,
Man's fundamental life: if to despise
The barren optimistic sophistries
Of comfortable moles, whom what they do
Teaches the limit of the just and true--
And for such doing have no need of eyes:
If sadness at the long heart-wasting show
Wherein earth's great ones are disquieted:
If thoughts, not idle, while before me flow
The armies of the homeless and unfed:--
If these are yours, if this is what you are,
Then am I yours, and what you feel, I share.





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