{
 "id": "matthew-arnold/epilogue-to-lessings-laocoon",
 "title": "Epilogue to Lessing’s Laocoön",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Matthew Arnold",
 "poet_slug": "matthew-arnold",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "New Poems",
 "book_slug": "new-poems",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": null,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1867,
  "venue": "New Poems (1867)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/newpoems00arno"
  ]
 },
 "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": 210,
  "n_stanzas": 10,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 44,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "One morn as through Hyde Park we walk’d.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My friend and I, by chance we talk’d",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Lessing’s famed Laocoön;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And after we awhile had gone",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In Lessing’s track, and tried to see",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What painting is, what poetry⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Diverging to another thought,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Ah,” cries my friend, “but who hath taught",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Why music and the other arts",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Oftener perform aright their parts",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than poetry? why she, than they,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fewer fine successes can display?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“For ’tis so, surely! Even in Greece,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Where best the poet framed his piece,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Even in that Phoebus-guarded ground",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pausanias on his travels found",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Good poems, if he look’d, more rare",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(Though many) than good statues were⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For these, in truth, were everywhere!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of bards full many a stroke divine",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In Dante’s, Petrarch’s, Tasso’s line,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The land of Ariosto show’d;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And yet, e’en there, the canvas glow’d",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With triumphs, a yet ampler brood,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Raphael and his brotherhood.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And nobly perfect, in our day",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of haste, half-work, and disarray,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Profound yet touching, sweet yet strong,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hath risen Goethe’s, Wordsworth’s song;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet even I (and none will bow",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Deeper to these!) must needs allow,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They yield us not, to soothe our pains,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Such multitude of heavenly strains",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As from the kings of sound are blown,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "While thus my friend discoursed, we pass",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Out of the path, and take the grass.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The grass had still the green of May,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And still the unblacken’d elms were gay;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The kine were resting in the shade,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The flies a summer murmur made;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bright was the morn and south the air;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The soft-couch’d cattle were as fair",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As those that pastured by the sea,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That old-world morn, in Sicily,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When on the beach the Cyclops lay,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And Galatea from the bay",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mock’d her poor lovelorn giant’s lay.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Behold,” I said, “the painter’s sphere!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The limits of his art appear!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The passing group, the summer morn,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The grass, the elms, that blossom’d thorn;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Those cattle couch’d, or, as they rise,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their shining flanks, their liquid eyes;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "These, or much greater things, but caught",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like these, and in one aspect brought.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In outward semblance he must give",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A moment’s life of things that live;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then let him choose his moment well,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With power divine its story tell!”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Still we walk’d on, in thoughtful mood,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And now upon the Bridge we stood.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Full of sweet breathings was the air,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of sudden stirs and pauses fair;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Down o’er the stately Bridge the breeze",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Came rustling from the garden trees",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And on the sparkling waters play’d.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Light-plashing waves an answer made,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And mimic boats their haven near’d.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Beyond, the Abbey towers appear’d,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By mist and chimneys unconfined,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Free to the sweep of light and wind;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While through their earth-moor’d nave below,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Another breath of wind doth blow,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sound as of wandering breeze⁠—but sound",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In laws by human artists bound.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“The world of music!” I exclaim’d,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“This breeze that rustles by, that famed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Abbey recall it! what a sphere,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Large and profound, hath genius here!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The inspired musician what a range,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What power of passion, wealth of change!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Some source of feeling he must choose",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And its lock’d fount of beauty use,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And through the stream of music tell",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Its else unutterable spell;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To choose it rightly is his part,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And press into its inmost heart.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Miserere, Domine!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The words are utter’d, and they flee.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Deep is their penitential moan,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mighty their pathos, but ’tis gone!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They have declared the spirit’s sore",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sore load, and words can do no more.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Beethoven takes them then⁠—those two",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Poor, bounded words⁠—and makes them new;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Infinite makes them, makes them young;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Transplants them to another tongue",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where they can now, without constraint,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pour all the soul of their complaint,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And roll adown a channel large",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The wealth divine they have in charge.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Page after page of music turn,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And still they live and still they burn,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Eternal, passion-fraught, and free⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Miserere, Domine!”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Onward we moved, and reach’d the Ride",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where gaily flows the human tide.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Afar, in rest the cattle lay,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We heard, afar, faint music play;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But agitated, brisk, and near,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Men, with their stream of life, were here.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Some hang upon the rails, and some",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On foot, behind them, go and come.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This through the Ride upon his steed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Goes slowly by, and this at speed;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The young, the happy, and the fair,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The old, the sad, the worn were there;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Some vacant, and some musing went,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And some in talk and merriment.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nods, smiles, and greetings, and farewells!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And now and then, perhaps, there swells",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A sigh, a tear⁠—but in the throng",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All changes fast, and hies along;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hies, ah, from whence, what native ground?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And to what goal, what ending, bound?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Behold, at last the poet’s sphere!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But who,” I said, “suffices here?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“For, ah! so much he has to do!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Be painter and musician too!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The aspect of the moment show,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The feeling of the moment know!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The aspect not, I grant, express",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Clear as the painter’s art can dress,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The feeling not, I grant, explore",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So deep as the musician’s lore⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But clear as words can make revealing,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And deep as words can follow feeling.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But, ah, then comes his sorest spell",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of toil! he must life’s movement tell!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The thread which binds it all in one,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And not its separate parts alone!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The movement he must tell of life,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Its pain and pleasure, rest and strife;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His eye must travel down, at full,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The long, unpausing spectacle;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With faithful unrelaxing force",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Attend it from its primal source,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From change to change and year to year",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Attend it of its mid career,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Attend it to the last repose",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And solemn silence of its close.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“The cattle rising from the grass",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "His thought must follow where they pass;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The penitent with anguish bow’d",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His thought must follow through the crowd.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yes, all this eddying, motley throng",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That sparkles in the sun along,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Girl, statesman, merchant, soldier bold,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Master and servant, young and old,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Grave, gay, child, parent, husband, wife,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He follows home, and lives their life!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“And many, many are the souls",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Life’s movement fascinates, controls.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It draws them on, they cannot save",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their feet from its alluring wave;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They cannot leave it, they must go",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With its unconquerable flow.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But, ah, how few of all that try",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This mighty march, do aught but die!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For ill prepared for such a way,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ill found in strength, in wits, are they!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They faint, they stagger to and fro,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And wandering from the stream they go;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In pain, in terror, in distress,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They see, all round, a wilderness.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sometimes a momentary gleam",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They catch of the mysterious stream;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sometimes, a second’s space, their ear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The murmur of its waves doth hear.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That transient glimpse in song they say,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But not as painter can portray!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That transient sound in song they tell,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But not, as the musician, well!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And when at last their snatches cease,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And they are silent and at peace,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The stream of life’s majestic whole",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hath ne’er been mirror’d on their soul.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Only a few the life-stream’s shore",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With safe unwandering feet explore.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Untired its movement bright attend,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Follow its windings to the end.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then from its brimming waves their eye",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Drinks up delighted ecstasy,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And its deep-toned, melodious voice,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For ever makes their ear rejoice.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They speak! the happiness divine",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They feel, runs o’er in every line.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Its spell is round them like a shower;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It gives them pathos, gives them power.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No painter yet hath such a way",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor no musician made, as they;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And gather’d on immortal knolls",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Such lovely flowers for cheering souls!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Beethoven, Raphael, cannot reach",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The charm which Homer, Shakespeare, teach.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To these, to these, their thankful race",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Gives, then, the first, the fairest place!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And brightest is their glory’s sheen,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For greatest hath their labour been.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}