In a London Square
by Arthur Hugh Clough

English poet. His first poem of note, The Bothie of Tober-na-Vuolich (1848) is written in classical Hexameters and tells the story of an Oxford scholar who marries a 'Scotch lassie'. Amours de Voyage (1858) is similar in its treatment of religious doubt, class conflict and romantic love. Clough's dissatisfaction with the attitudes of the Victorian age is most forcefully expressed in two poems which were not published until after his death: 'Dypsichus', which he described as dealing with the 'conflict between a tender conscience and the world'; and 'The Latest Decalogue', a biting satire on Victorian morality. His collected Poems became very popular when they were published in 1862.

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In a London Square
by Arthur Hugh Clough

Put forth thy leaf, thou lofty plane,
East wind and frost are safely gone;
With zephyr mild and balmy rain
The summer comes serenly on;
Earth, air, and sun and skies combine
To promise all that's kind and fair: -
But thou, O human heart of mine,
Be still, contain thyself, and bear.

December days were brief and chill,
The winds of March were wild and drear,
And, nearing and receding still,
Spring never would, we thought, be here.
The leaves that burst, the suns that shine,
Had, not the less, their certain date: -
And thou, O human heart of mine,
Be still, refrain thyself, and wait.

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In a London Square by Arthur Hugh Clough