114 "" AND WHAT IS HOPE? THE PUFFING gale of morn,—(clake) ARTHUR HENRY CLOUGH. W THE THRUSH'S NEST. ITHIN a thick and spreading hawthorn bush I heard from morn to morn a merry thrush I watched her secret toils from day to day; [From "Poems of Rural Life."] "THEN WHAT IS LIFE? WHEN STRIPT OF ITS DISGUISE, A THING TO BE DESIRED? IT CANNOT BE!"-CLARE. "SINCE EVERYTHING THAT MEETS OUR FOOLISH EYES GIVES PROOF SUFFICIENT OF ITS VANITY."--JOHN CLARE, Arthur Henry Clough. [ARTHUR HENRY CLOUGH was born at Liverpool, on the 1st of January 1819, and educated at Rugby, where he was regarded by Dr. Arnold as one of the most promising of his pupils. From Rugby he went to Oxford, carrying off the Balliol Scholarship—a high distinction-and obtaining in 1842 a fellowship at Oriel. His first published poem appeared in 1848-the "Bothie of Tober-na-Vuolich;" which at once convinced the "judicious few" of his extraordinary powers. "A sense of fresh, healthy manliness,” says Mr. F. T. Palgrave; "a scorn of base and selfish motives; a frank admiration for common life; a love of earth, not only for its earthly sake,' but for the divine and the eternal interfused in it;—such, and other such, are the impressions left. Viewed critically, Clough's work is wanting in art; the language and the thought are often unequal and incomplete; the poetical fusion into a harmonious whole imperfect." In 1849 he published a series of poems under the title of "Ambarvalia," many of which, it has been said, will hold their place beside those of Tennyson and Browning. For some few months he held the Wardenship of THAT ROBS EACH FLOW'RET OF ITS GEM, AND DIES."-CLARE. "LOVE, DEPARTED ONCE, COMES BACK-(A. H. CLOUGH) GREEN FIELDS OF ENGLAND. 115 University Hall, London. In 1852 he visited the United States, but an ap- Besides the works already mentioned, he wrote the " Amours de Voyage," "EXCITEMENTS COME, AND ACT AND SPEECH FLOW FREELY FORTH; BUT NO,-(CLOUGH) GREEN FIELDS OF ENGLAND. REEN fields of England! wheresoe'er Sweet eyes in England, I must flee Dear home in England, safe and fast, [From Clough's "Life, Letters, and Poems."] NO MORE AGAIN,-NO MORE."-ARTHUR HENRY CLOUGH. NOR THEY, NOR AUGHT BESIDE, CAN REACH THE BURIED WORLD BELOW."-A. H. CLOUGH. 116 ་་ THE SUMMUM PULCHRUM RESTS IN HEAVEN; ARTHUR HENRY CLOUGH. ENDURANCE AND PATIENCE. R UT forth thy leaf, thou lofty plane, With zephyr mild and balmy rain, December days were brief and chill, The winds of March were wild and drear, Spring never would, we thought, be here. [From Clough's "Life, Letters, and Poems."] "THE HEART IS PRONE TO FALL AWAY, HER HIGH AND CHERISHED VISIONS TO FORGET."-CLOUGH. "YOUNG CHILDREN GATHER AS THEIR OWN THE HARVEST THAT THE DEAD HAD SOWN."-CLOUGH. "O ONLY SOURCE OF ALL OUR LIGHT AND LIFE, WHOM AS OUR STRENGTH WE SEE AND FEEL, BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO HAVE NOT SEEN, A HIGHLAND BURN. 117 E'en so-but why the tale reveal Of those, whom year by year unchanged, Astounded, soul from soul estranged. To veer, how vain! on, onward strain, Brave barks! in light, in darkness too, But, O blithe breeze! and, O great seas! One port, methought, alike they sought, [From Clough's "Life, Letters, and Poems."] A HIGHLAND BURN. HERE is a stream (I name not its name, lest inquisitive Hunt it, and make it a lion, and get it at last into Springing far off from a loch unexplored in the folds of great BUT WHOM THE HOURS OF MORTAL MORAL STRIFE ALONE ARIGHT REVEAL!"-A. H. CLOUGH. |