{"id":200,"date":"2019-07-12T12:33:35","date_gmt":"2019-07-12T12:33:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/exit78.com\/poems\/?p=200"},"modified":"2019-07-12T13:06:31","modified_gmt":"2019-07-12T13:06:31","slug":"to-marguerite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exit78.com\/poems\/to-marguerite\/","title":{"rendered":"To Marguerite"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"WeMatthew Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n

Y<\/span>ES<\/span>: in the sea of life enisled,<\/p>\n

With echoing straits between us thrown.<\/p>\n

Dotting the shoreless watery wild,<\/p>\n

We mortal millions live alone<\/i>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The islands feel the enclasping flow,<\/p>\n

And then their endless bounds they know.<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

But when the moon their hollows lights,<\/p>\n

And they are swept by balms of spring,<\/p>\n

And in their glens, on starry nights,<\/p>\n

The nightingales divinely sing;<\/p>\n

And lovely notes, from shore to shore,<\/p>\n

Across the sounds and channels pour;<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Mathew Arnold1<\/sup><\/p><\/div>\n

O then a longing like despair<\/p>\n

Is to their farthest caverns sent!<\/p>\n

\u2014For surely once, they feel, we were<\/p>\n

Parts of a single continent.<\/p>\n

Now round us spreads the watery plain\u2014<\/p>\n

O might our marges meet again!<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

Who order\u2019d that their longing\u2019s fire<\/p>\n

Should be, as soon as kindled, cool\u2019d?<\/p>\n

Who renders vain their deep desire?\u2014<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A God, a God their severance ruled;<\/p>\n

And bade betwixt their shores to be<\/p>\n

The unplumb\u2019d, salt, estranging sea.<\/p>\n

……..<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

The poem was first published with the title To Marguerite, in Returning a Volume of the Letters of Ortis<\/em> in 1852 in a volume titled Empedocles on Etna and other Poems, <\/em>published anonymously. The volume is very scarce and was withdrawn from circulation before fifty copies were sold. In 1857, the poem was published as To Marguerite: Continued<\/em>, a sequel to the poem Isolation: To Marguerite<\/em>.1<\/sup><\/p>\n

……<\/span><\/p>\n

The punctuation and formatting used for the poem on this page is from an 1896 compilation of Arnold’s poetry.2<\/sup><\/p>\n

…<\/span><\/h3>\n

Glossary<\/h3>\n