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Ah! Yet Consider It Again!

By Arthur Hugh Clough

Topics: classic

Old things need not be therefore true,     O brother men, nor yet the new;     Ah! still awhile the old thought retain,     And yet consider it again!     The souls of now two thousand years,     Have laid up here their toils and fears,     And all the earnings of their pain,     Ah, yet consider it again!     We! what do we see? each a space     Of some few yards before his face;     Does that the whole wide plan explain?     Ah, yet consider it again!     Alas! the great world goes its way,     And takes its truth from each new day;     They do not quit, nor can retain,     Far less consider it again.

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"Old things need not be therefore true,..."

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Author:Arthur Hugh Clough

"Old things need not be therefore true,..." by Arthur Hugh Clough

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Arthur Hugh Clough

About Arthur Hugh Clough

Arthur Hugh Clough (1819–1861) was an English poet whose work explores Victorian doubt and moral uncertainty. His poems "Say Not the Struggle Naught Availeth" and "The Latest Decalogue" are sharp, thoughtful, and still widely anthologized.

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"Cease, empty Faith, the Spectrum saith,     I was,..."

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