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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


IMMORTALITY by MATTHEW ARNOLD

Poet Analysis

First Line: FOILED BY OUR FELLOW-MEN, DEPRESS'D, OUTWORN
Last Line: MOUNTS, AND THAT HARDLY, TO ETERNAL LIFE.
Subject(s): IMMORTALITY;

Foiled by our fellow men, depressed, outworn,
We leave the brutal world to take its way,
And, Patience! in another life, we say,
The world shall be thrust down, and we up-borne!
And will not, then, the immortal armies scorn
The world's poor, routed leavings; or will they,
Who failed under the heat of this life's day.
Support the fervors of the heavenly morn?
No, no! the energy of life may be
Kept on after the grave, but not begun;
And he who flagged not in the earthly strife,
From strength to strength advancing - only he,
His soul well-knit, and all his battles won,
Mounts, and that hardly, to eternal life.



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