Explore "To a Friend10" by Matthew Arnold on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Who prop, thou ask'st, in these bad days, my mind?
He much, the old man, who, clearest-soul'd of men, / Saw The Wide Prospect, and the Asian Fen,
And Tmolus' hill, and Smyrna's bay, though blind.
Much he, whose friendship I not long since won, / That halting slave, who in Nicopolis / Taught Arrian, when Vespasian's brutal son / Clear'd Rome of what most sham'd him. But be his / My special thanks, whose even-balanc'd soul, / From first youth tested up to extreme old age, / Business could not make dull, nor Passion wild: / Who saw life steadily, and saw it whole: / The mellow glory of the Attic stage; / Singer of sweet Colonus, and its child.