How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #7
I found him in the shining of the stars,
I mark’d Him in the flowering of His fields,
But in His ways with men I find Him not.
I waged His wars, and now I pass and die.
O me! for why is all around us here
As if some lesser god had made the world
But had not force to shape it as he would,
Till the High God behold it from beyond,
and enter it, and make it beautiful.’
(“The Passing of Arthur,” 9-17)
Arthur sees God in the world around him but not, at this moment, in the workings of men. To him the world seems like an imperfect place, still in need of someone to “enter it, and make it beautiful.” Arthur tried to be that person, but now he is faced with the betrayal of many of his knights and the complete collapse of the society he created.
Quote #8
‘O me! for why is all around us here
[…] As if the world were wholly fair,
But that these eyes of men are dense and dim,
And have not power to see it as it is:
Perchance, because we see not to the close;—
For I, being simple, thought to work His will,
And have but stricken with the sword in vain.’
(“Passing of Arthur,” 13, 18-23)
Returning to his characteristic idealism, Arthur reflects that perhaps the world truly is beautiful. It’s just that men, unable to see God’s plan for it, aren’t able to understand its beauty. The implication of this inability to see God’s plan, though, is that people, including Arthur, are foolish to attempt to consciously work God’s will on earth.