Matthew Arnold

Poetry is simply the most beautiful, impressive, and widely effective mode of saying things

Poetry is simply the most beautiful, impressive, and widely effective mode of saying things

I must not say that she was true,
Yet let me say that she was fair;
And read more

I must not say that she was true,
Yet let me say that she was fair;
And they, that lovely face who view,
They should not ask if truth be there.

Like driftwood spares which meet and pass
Upon the boundless ocean-plain,
So on the sea of life, read more

Like driftwood spares which meet and pass
Upon the boundless ocean-plain,
So on the sea of life, alas!
Man nears man, meets, and leaves again.

And see all sights from pole to pole
And glance, and nod, and bustle by,
And never read more

And see all sights from pole to pole
And glance, and nod, and bustle by,
And never once possess our soul
Before we die.

Still bent to make some port he knows not where, still standing for some false impossible shore.

Still bent to make some port he knows not where, still standing for some false impossible shore.