East London [Sonnet]

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Title:     East London [Sonnet]
Author: Matthew Arnold [More Titles by Arnold]

'Twas August, and the fierce sun overhead
Smote on the squalid streets of Bethnal Green,
And the pale weaver, through his windows seen
In Spitalfields, look'd thrice dispirited.

I met a preacher there I knew, and said:
"Ill and o'erwork'd, how fare you in this scene?"--
"Bravely!" said he; "for I of late have been
Much cheer'd with thoughts of Christ, _the living bread_."

O human soul! as long as thou canst so
Set up a mark of everlasting light,
Above the howling senses' ebb and flow,

To cheer thee, and to right thee if thou roam--
Not with lost toil thou labourest through the night!
Thou mak'st the heaven thou hop'st indeed thy home.

[The end]
Matthew Arnold's poem: East London [sonnet]

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