Skip to content
Linespedia

Epi-strauss-ium

By Arthur Hugh Clough

Topics: classic

Matthew and Mark and Luke and holy John     Evanished all and gone!     Yea, he that erst his dusky curtains quitting,     Thro Eastern pictured panes his level beams transmitting,     With gorgeous portraits blent,     On them his glories intercepted spent.     Southwestering now, thro windows plainly glassed,     On the inside face his radiance keen hath cast,     And in the lustre lost, invisible and gone,     Are, say you, Matthew, Mark and Luke and holy John?     Lost, is it, lost, to be recovered never?     However,     The place of worship the meantime with light     Is, if less richly, more sincerely bright,     And in blue skies the Orb is manifest to sight.

AI analysis available. Enable JavaScript to interact.

About this line

"Matthew and Mark and Luke and holy John..."

"Epi-strauss-ium" is a quintessential example of Arthur Hugh Clough's signature style... ### Why We Love This Line At Linespedia, we believe that poetry is the ultimate sanctuary for the soul...

Attribution & Rights

Author:Arthur Hugh Clough

"Matthew and Mark and Luke and holy John..." by Arthur Hugh Clough

For usage rights, copyright concerns, or to report an issue with this content, please visit our Copyright & Report page.

Related lines

"Cease, empty Faith, the Spectrum saith,     I was, and lo, have been;     I, God, am nought: a shade of thought,     Which, but by darkness see"

"These are the words of Jacobs wives, the words     Which Leah spake and Rachel to his ears,     When, in the shade at eventide, he sat     By"

"To spend uncounted years of pain,     Again, again, and yet again,     In working out in heart and brain     The problem of our being here;"

"On grass, on gravel, in the sun,     Or now beneath the shade,     They went, in pleasant Kensington,     A prentice and a maid.     That Sun"

"Here morning in the ploughman's songs is met     Ere yet one footstep shows in all the sky,     And twilight in the east, a doubt as yet,     S"

"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

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.

Full Bibliography
Continue Reading

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

Weekly Poetic Insight

Join our literary Sanctuary

Get the most inspiring lines, poetic analysis, and secret shayaris delivered to your inbox every Sunday.