Arthur Hugh Clough

"’Twas on a sunny summer day I trod a mighty city’s street, And when I started on my way My heart was full of fancies sweet; But soon, as nothing could be seen, But countenances sharp and keen, Nought heard or seen around but told Of something bought or something sold, And none that seemed to think or care That any save himself was there."

"Truth is a golden thread, seen here and there In small bright specks upon the visible side Of our strange being’s party-coloured web."

"Come back again, old heart! Ah me! Methinks in those thy coward fears There might, perchance, a courage be, That fails in these the manlier years; Courage to let the courage sink, Itself a coward base to think, Rather than not for heavenly light Wait on to show the truly right."

"Thought may well be ever ranging, And opinion ever changing, Task-work be, though ill begun, Dealt with by experience better; By the law and by the letter Duty done is duty done Do it, Time is on the wing!"

"Loving—if the answering breast Seem not to be thus possessed, Still in hoping have a care; If it do, beware, beware! But if in yourself you find it, Above all things—mind it, mind it!"

"When panting sighs the bosom fill, And hands by chance united thrill At once with one delicious pain The pulses and the nerves of twain; When eyes that erst could meet with ease, Do seek, yet, seeking, shyly shun Ecstatic conscious unison,— The sure beginnings, say, be these Prelusive to the strain of love Which angels sing in heaven above?"

"Thy duty do? rejoined the voice, Ah, do it, do it, and rejoice; But shalt thou then, when all is done, Enjoy a love, embrace a beauty Like these, that may be seen and won In life, whose course will then be run; Or wilt thou be where there is none? I know not, I will do my duty."

"Think where we are. Carlyle has led us all into the desert, and he has left us there."

"So in the sinful streets, abstracted and alone, I with my secret self held communing of mine own."

"Hope conquers cowardice, joy grief; Or at least, faith unbelief."

"What voice did on my spirit fall, Peschiera, when thy bridge I crost? ‘’Tis better to have fought and lost, Than never to have fought at all.’"

"Alas! the great world goes its way, And takes its truth from each new day; They do not quit, nor can retain, Far less consider it again."

"Where lies the land to which the ship would go? Far, far ahead, is all her seamen know. And where the land she travels from? Away, Far, far behind, is all that they can say."

"Go; say not in thy heart, And what then were it accomplished, Were the wild impulse allayed, what were the use or the good! Go, when the instinct is stilled, and when the deed is accomplished, What thou bast done and shalt do, shall be declared to thee then. Go with the sun and the stars, and yet evermore in thy spirit Say to thyself: It is good: yet is there better than it. This that I see is not all, and this that I do is but little; Nevertheless it is good, though there is better than it."

"That out of sight is out of mind Is true of most we leave behind."

"“There is no God,” the wicked saith, “And truly it’s a blessing, For what He might have done with us It’s better only guessing.”"

"Say not the struggle nought availeth, The labour and the wounds are vain, The enemy faints not nor faileth, And as things have been, things remain;If hopes were dupes, fears may be liars; It may be, in yon smoke conceal'd, Your comrades chase e'en now the fliers— And, but for you, possess the field.For while the tired waves vainly breaking Seem here no painful inch to gain, Far back, through creeks and inlets making, Comes silent, flooding in, the main.And not by eastern windows only, When daylight comes, comes in the light, In front the sun climbs slow, how slowly, But westward, look! the land is bright."

"Thou shalt have one God only; who Would be at the expense of two?"

"No graven images may be Worshipped, except the currency."

"Honour thy parents; that is, all From whom advancement may befall: Thou shalt not kill; but need’st not strive Officiously to keep alive."

"Do not adultery commit; Advantage rarely comes of it."

"Thou shalt not steal; an empty feat, When it's so lucrative to cheat."

"Thou shalt not covet, but tradition Approves all forms of competition."

"I watched them from the window, thy children at their play, And I thought of all my own dear friends, who were far, oh, far away, And childish loves, and childish cares, and a child’s own buoyant gladness Came gushing back again to me with a soft and solemn sadness; And feelings frozen up full long, and thoughts of long ago, Seemed to be thawing at my heart with a warm and sudden flow."

"Put forth thy leaf, thou lofty plane, East wind and frost are safely gone; With zephyr mild and balmy rain The summer comes serenely on; Earth, air, and sun and skies combine To promise all that’s kind and fair:— But thou, O human heart of mine, Be still, contain thyself, and bear."

"Our ills are worse than at their ease These blameless happy souls suspect, They only study the disease, Alas, who live not to detect."

"Each for himself is still the rule We learn it when we go to school— The devil take the hindmost, O!"

"O tell me, friends, while yet we part, And heart can yet be heard of heart, O tell me then, for what is it Our early plan of life we quit; From all our old intentions range, And why does all so wholly change? O tell me, friends, while yet we part!"

"My wind is turned to bitter north, That was so soft a south before; My sky, that shone so sunny bright, With foggy gloom is clouded o’er My gay green leaves are yellow-black, Upon the dank autumnal floor; For love, departed once, comes back No more again, no more."

"’Tis possible, young sir, that some excess Mars youthful judgment and old men’s no less; Yet we must take our counsel as we may For (flying years this lesson still convey), ’Tis worst unwisdom to be overwise, And not to use, but still correct one’s eyes."

"Dance on, dance on, we see, we see Youth goes, alack, and with it glee, A boy the old man ne’er can be; Maternal thirty scarce can find The sweet sixteen long left behind."

"Home, Rose, and home, Provence and La Palie."

"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."

"The grave man, nicknamed Adam."

"... High-kilted perhaps, as once at Dundee I saw them, Petticoats up to the knees, or even, it might be, above them, Matching their lily-white legs with the clothes that they trod in the wash-tub!"

"Good, too, Logic, of course; in itself, but not in fine weather."

"... O musical chaff of old Athens, Dishes, and fishes, bird, beast, and sesquipedalian black-guard!"

"... In a blue cotton print tucked up over striped linsey-woolsey, Barefoot, barelegged, he beheld her, with arms bare up to the elbows, Bending with fork in her hand in a garden uprooting potatoes"

"Grace is given of God, but knowledge is bought in the market; Knowledge needful for all, yet cannot be had for the asking."

"Women are weak, as you say, and love of all things to be passive, Passive, patient, receptive, yea, even of wrong and misdoing, Even to force and misdoing with joy and victorious feeling Patient, passive, receptive; for that is the strength of their being, Like to the earth taking all things, and all to good converting."

"A world where nothing is had for nothing."

"There is a great Field-Marshal, my friend, who arrays our battalions; Let us to Providence trust, and abide and work in our stations."

"They are married and gone to New Zealand."

"Rome, believe me, my friend, is like its own Monte Testaceo, Merely a marvellous mass of broken and castaway wine-pots."

"The horrible pleasure of pleasing inferior people."

"Am I prepared to lay down my life for the British female? Really, who knows? ... Ah, for a child in the street I could strike; for the full-blown lady— Somehow, Eustace, alas! I have not felt the vocation."

"I do not like being moved: for the will is excited; and action Is a most dangerous thing; I tremble for something factitious, Some malpractice of heart and illegitimate process; We are so prone to these things, with our terrible notions of duty."

"But for his funeral train which the bridegroom sees in the distance, Would he so joyfully, think you, fall in with the marriage procession?"

"Allah is great, no doubt, and Juxtaposition his prophet."

"Mild monastic faces in quiet collegiate cloisters:"