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Through a Glass Darkly

By Arthur Hugh Clough

Topics: classic

What we, when face to face we see     The Father of our souls, shall be,     John tells us, doth not yet appear;     Ah! did he tell what we are here!     A mind for thoughts to pass into,     A heart for loves to travel through,     Five senses to detect things near,     Is this the whole that we are here?     Rules baffle instinctsinstincts rules,     Wise men are badand good are fools,     Facts evilwishes vain appear,     We cannot go, why are we here?     O may we for assurance sake,     Some arbitrary judgment take,     And wilfully pronounce it clear,     For this or that tis we are here?     Or is it right, and will it do,     To pace the sad confusion through,     And say:It doth not yet appear,     What we shall be, what we are here.     Ah yet, when all is thought and said,     The heart still overrules the head;     Still what we hope we must believe,     And what is given us receive;     Must still believe, for still we hope     That in a world of larger scope,     What here is faithfully begun     Will be completed, not undone.     My child, we still must think, when we     That ampler life together see,     Some true result will yet appear     Of what we are, together, here.

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"What we, when face to face we see..."

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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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