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In a Lecture Room

By Arthur Hugh Clough

Topics: classic

Away, haunt thou me not,     Thou vain Philosophy!     Little hast thou bestead,     Save to perplex the head,     And leave the spirit dead.     Unto thy broken cisterns wherefore go,     While from the secret treasure-depths below,     Fed by the skyey shower,     And clouds that sink and rest on hilltops high,     Wisdom at once, and Power,     Are welling, bubbling forth, unseen, incessantly?     Why labor at the dull mechanic oar,     When the fresh breeze is blowing,     And the strong current flowing,     Right onward to the Eternal Shore?

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"Away, haunt thou me not,..."

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Author: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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