Rachel I

Rachel I by Matthew Arnold

 In Paris all look'd hot and like to fade.
 Sere, in the garden of the Tuileries,
 Sere with September, droop'd the chestnut-trees.
 'Twas dawn; a brougham roll'd through the streets and made

 Halt at the white and silent colonnade
 Of the French Theatre. Worn with disease,
 Rachel, with eyes no gazing can appease,
 Sate in the brougham and those blank walls survey'd.

 She follows the gay world, whose swarms have fled
 To Switzerland, to Baden, to the Rhine;
 Why stops she by this empty play-house drear?

 Ah, where the spirit its highest life hath led,
 All spots, match'd with that spot, are less divine;
 And Rachel's Switzerland, her Rhine, is here!

This work published before January 1, 1923 is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.