“Ah! do not we, wanderer! await it too?”

— Matthew Arnold

St. 18
The Scholar Gypsy (1853)
Context: Thou waitest for the spark from heaven! and we,
Light half-believers of our casual creeds,
Who never deeply felt, nor clearly will’d,
Whose insight never has borne fruit in deeds,
Whose vague resolves never have been fulfill’d;
For whom each year we see
Breeds new beginnings, disappointments new;
Who hesitate and falter life away,
And lose to-morrow the ground won to-day—
Ah! do not we, wanderer! await it too?

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Matthew Arnold 166

English poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector… 1822–1888

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