The poetical works of Matthew Arnold/Immortality

by Matthew Arnold

For works with similar titles, see Immortality.

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 upborne.

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.