{
 "id": "matthew-arnold/cromwell",
 "title": "Cromwell",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Matthew Arnold",
 "poet_slug": "matthew-arnold",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Cromwell: A Prize Poem",
 "book_slug": "cromwell",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 1,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": "Schrecklich ist es, deiner Wahrheit / Sterbliches Gefäss zu seyn.",
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1843,
  "venue": "Cromwell: A Prize Poem (1843)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/cromwellprizepoe00arnorich"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/matthew-arnold_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/27739",
   "https://archive.org/details/poemsofmatthewar00arnouoft",
   "https://archive.org/details/poeticalworksofm00arn",
   "https://archive.org/details/inmemoriamawrea00marsgoog"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-12"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 240,
  "n_stanzas": 12,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 56,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "High fate is theirs, ye sleepless waves, whose ear",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Learns Freedom’s lesson from your voice of fear;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whose spell-bound sense from childhood’s hour hath known",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Familiar meanings in your mystic tone:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sounds of deep import⁠—voices that beguile",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Age of its tears and childhood of its smile,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To yearn with speechless impulse to the free",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And gladsome greetings of the buoyant sea!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "High fate is theirs, who where the silent sky",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stoops to the soaring mountains, live and die;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who scale the cloud-capt height, or sink to rest",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the deep stillness of its shelt’ring breast;⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Around whose feet the exulting waves have sung,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The eternal hills their giant shadows flung.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "No wonders nurs’d thy childhood; not for thee",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Did the waves chant their song of liberty!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thine was no mountain home, where Freedom’s form",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Abides enthron’d amid the mist and storm,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And whispers to the listening winds, that swell",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With solemn cadence round her citadel!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "These had no sound for thee: that cold calm eye",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lit with no rapture as the storm swept by,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To mark with shiver’d crest the reeling wave",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hide his torn head beneath his sunless cave;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or hear, ’mid circling crags, the impatient cry",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the pent winds, that scream in agony!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet all high sounds that mountain children hear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Flash’d from thy soul upon thine inward ear;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All Freedom’s mystic language⁠—storms that roar",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By hill or wave, the mountain or the shore⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All these had stirr’d thy spirit, and thine eye",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In common sights read secret sympathy;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till all bright thoughts that hills or waves can yield,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Deck’d the dull waste, and the familiar field;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or wondrous sounds from tranquil skies were borne",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Far o’er the glistening sheets of windy corn:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Skies⁠—that unbound by clasp of mountain chain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Slope stately down, and melt into the plain;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sounds⁠—such as erst the lone wayfaring man",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Caught, as he journeyed, from the lips of Pan;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or that mysterious cry, that smote with fear,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like sounds from other worlds, the Spartan’s ear,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While o’er the dusty plain, the murmurous throng",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Heaven’s embattled myriads swept along.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Say not such dreams are idle: for the man",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Still toils to perfect what the child began;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And thoughts, that were but outlines, time engraves",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Deep on his life; and childhood’s baby waves,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Made rough with care, become the changeful sea,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stemm’d by the strength of manhood fearlessly;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And fleeting thoughts, that on the lonely wild",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Swept o’er the fancy of that heedless child,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Perchance had quicken’d with a living truth",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The cold dull soil of his unfruitful youth;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till, with his daily life, a life, that threw",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Its shadows o’er the future, flower’d and grew,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With common cares unmingling, and apart,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Haunting the shrouded chambers of his heart;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till life, unstirr’d by action, life became",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Threaded and lighten’d by a track of flame;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "An inward light, that, with its streaming ray",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On the dark current of his changeless day",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bound all his being with a silver chain⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like a swift river through a silent plain!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "High thoughts were his, when by the gleaming flood,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With heart new strung, and stern resolve, he stood;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where rode the tall dark ships, whose loosen’d sail",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All idly flutter’d in the eastern gale;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "High thoughts were his;⁠—but Memory’s glance the while",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fell on the cherish’d past with tearful smile;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And peaceful joys and gentler thoughts swept by,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like summer lightnings o’er a darken’d sky.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The peace of childhood, and the thoughts that roam,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like loving shadows, round that childhood’s home;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Joys that had come and vanish’d, half unknown,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then slowly brighten’d, as the days had flown;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Years that were sweet or sad, becalm’d or toss’d",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On life’s wild waves⁠—the living and the lost.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Youth stain’d with follies: and the thoughts of ill",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Crush’d, as they rose, by manhood’s sterner will.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Repentant prayers, that had been strong to save;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the first sorrow, which is childhood’s grave!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All shapes that haunt remembrance⁠—soft and fair,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like a green land at sunset, all were there!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Eyes that he knew, old faces, unforgot,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Gaz’d sadly down on his unrestful lot,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And Memory’s calm clear voice, and mournful eye,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Chill’d every buoyant hope that floated by;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like frozen winds on southern vales that blow",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From a far land⁠—the children of the snow⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O’er flowering plain and blossom’d meadow fling",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The cold dull shadow of their icy wing.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then Fancy’s roving visions, bold and free,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A moment dispossess’d reality.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All airy hopes that idle hearts can frame,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like dreams between two sorrows, went and came:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fond hearts that fain would clothe the unwelcome truth",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of toilsome manhood in the dreams of youth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To bend in rapture at some idle throne,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Some lifeless soulless phantom of their own;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Some shadowy vision of a tranquil life,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of joys unclouded, years unstirr’d by strife;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of sleep unshadow’d by a dream of woe;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of many a lawny hill, and streams with silver flow;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of giant mountains by the western main,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The sunless forest, and the sea-like plain;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Those lingering hopes of coward hearts, that still",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Would play the traitor to the steadfast will,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "One moment’s space, perchance, might charm his eye",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From the stern future, and the years gone by.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "One moment’s space might waft him far away",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To western shores⁠—the death-place of the day!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Might paint the calm, sweet peace⁠—the rest of home,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Far o’er the pathless waste of labouring foam⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Peace, that recall’d his childish hours anew,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "More calm, more deep, than childhood ever knew!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Green happy places⁠—like a flowery lea",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Between the barren mountains and the stormy sea.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O pleasant rest, if once the race were run!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "O happy slumber, if the day were done!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dreams that were sweet at eve, at morn were sin;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With cares to conquer, and a goal to win!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His were no tranquil years⁠—no languid sleep⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No life of dreams⁠—no home beyond the deep⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No softening ray⁠—no visions false and wild⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No glittering hopes on life’s gray distance smiled⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like isles of sunlight on a mountain’s brow,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lit by a wandering gleam, we know not how,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Far on the dim horizon, when the sky",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With glooming clouds broods dark and heavily.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then his eye slumber’d, and the chain was broke",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "That bound his spirit, and his heart awoke;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then⁠—like a kingly river⁠—swift and strong,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The future roll’d its gathering tides along!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The shout of onset and the shriek of fear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Smote, like the rush of waters, on his ear;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And his eye kindled with the kindling fray,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The surging battle and the mail’d array!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All wondrous deeds the coming days should see,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the long Vision of the years to be.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pale phantom hosts, like shadows, faint and far,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Councils, and armies, and the pomp of war!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And one sway’d all, who wore a kingly crown,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Until another rose and smote him down:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A form that tower’d above his brother men;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A form he knew⁠—but it was shrouded then!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With stern, slow steps⁠—unseen⁠—yet still the same,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By leaguer’d tower and tented field it came;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By Naseby’s hill, o’er Marston’s heathy waste,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By Worcester’s field the warrior-vision pass’d!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From their deep base, thy beetling cliffs, Dunbar,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rang, as he trode them, with the voice of war!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The soldier kindled at his words of fire;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The statesman quail’d before his glance of ire!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Worn was his brow with cares no thought could scan,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His step was loftier than the steps of man;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the winds told his glory, and the wave",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sonorous witness to his empire gave!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "What forms are these, that with complaining sound,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And slow, reluctant steps are gathering round?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Forms that with him shall tread life’s changing stage,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Cross his lone path, or share his pilgrimage.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There, as he gazed, a wondrous band⁠—they came,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pym’s look of hate, and Strafford’s glance of flame.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There Laud, with noiseless steps and glittering eye,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In priestly garb, a frail old man, went by;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His drooping head bowed meekly on his breast;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His hands were folded, like a saint at rest!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There Hampden bent him o’er his saddle bow,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And death’s cold dews bedimm’d his earnest brow;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Still turn’d to watch the battle⁠—still forgot",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Himself, his sufferings, in his country’s lot!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There Falkland eyed the strife that would not cease,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shook back his tangled locks, and murmur’d⁠—“Peace!”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With feet that spurn’d the ground, lo! Milton there",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stood like a statue; and his face was fair⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fair beyond human beauty; and his eye,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That knew not earth, soar’d upwards to the sky!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He, too, was there⁠—it was the princely boy,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The child-companion of his childish joy!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But oh! how chang’d⁠—those deathlike features wore",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Childhood’s bright glance, and sunny smile no more!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That brow so sad, so pale, so full of care⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What trace of careless childhood linger’d there?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What spring of youth in that majestic mien,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So sadly calm, so kingly, so serene?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No⁠—all was chang’d⁠—the monarch wept alone,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Between a ruin’d church and shatter’d throne!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Friendless and hopeless⁠—like a lonely tree,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On some bare headland, straining mournfully,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That all night long its weary moan doth make",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To the vex’d waters of a mountain lake!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Still, as he gaz’d, the phantom’s mournful glance",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shook the deep slumber of his deathlike trance;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like some forgotten strain that haunts us still,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That calm eye follow’d, turn him where he will;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till the pale monarch, and the long array,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pass’d, like a morning mist, in tears away!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then all his dream was troubled, and his soul",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Thrill’d with a dread no slumber could control;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On that dark form his eyes had gaz’d before,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor known it then;⁠—but it was veil’d no more!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In broad clear light the ghastly vision shone⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That form was his⁠—those features were his own!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The night of terrors, and the day of care,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The years of toil, all, all were written there!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sad faces watch’d around him, and his breath",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Came faint and feeble in the embrace of death.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The gathering tempest, with its voice of fear,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His latest loftiest music, smote his ear!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That day of boundless hope and promise high,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That day that hail’d his triumphs, saw him die!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then from those whitening lips, as death drew near,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The imprisoning chains fell off, and all was clear!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like lowering clouds, that at the close of day,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bath’d in a blaze of sunset, melt away;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And with its clear calm tones, that dying prayer",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Cheer’d all the failing hearts that sorrow’d there!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "A life⁠—whose ways no human thought could scan;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A life⁠—that was not as the life of man;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A life⁠—that wrote its purpose with a sword,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Moulding itself into action, not in word!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rent with tumultuous thoughts, whose conflict rung",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Deep through his soul, and chok’d his faltering tongue;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A heart that reck’d not of the countless dead,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That strew’d the blood-stain’d path where Empire led;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A daring hand, that shrunk not to fulfil",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The thought that spurr’d it; and a dauntless will,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bold action’s parent; and a piercing ken",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Through the dark chambers of the hearts of men,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To read each thought, and teach that master-mind",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The fears and hopes and passions of mankind;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All these were thine⁠—Oh thought of fear!⁠—and thou",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stretch’d on that bed of death, art nothing now.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then all his vision faded, and his soul",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Sprang from its sleep! and lo, the waters roll",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Once more beneath him; and the fluttering sail,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where the dark ships rode proudly, woo’d the gale;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the wind murmur’d round him, and he stood",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Once more alone beside the gleaming flood.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}