Immortality By Matthew Arnold - Christian Poem Immortality By Matthew Arnold

The poem 'Immortality', written by Matthew Arnold, is a poignant description of human beings' eternal yearning for immortality. Immortality has been a subject matter for numerous poems written till date. Also, it is an issue that has been cropping up in Christian thoughts since ages. Immortality is the negation of mortality, i.e. not dying or not being subject to death. In the poem Arnold is fascinated about the concept of immortality, but he understands immortality not as being alive for thousand years, rather in enjoying the life after death. He says that it is after death that we leave the cruel world and enter into an eternal phase of life.

Immortality

Foil'd by our fellow men, depress'd, outworn,

We leave the brutal world to take its way,

And, Patience! In another life, we say,

The world shall be thrust down, and we up-borne!

And will not, then the immortal armies scorn

The world's poor routed leavings? or will they,

Who fail'd under the heat of this life's day,

Support the fervors of the heavenly morn?

No, no! the energy of life may be

Kept on after the grave, but not begun!

And he who flagg'd not in the earthly strife,

From strength to strength advancing--only he,

His soul well-knit and all his battles won,

Mounts, and that hardly, to eternal life