A Quiet Life

by Matthew Arnold — a poem card from Justes Mots

A Petrarchan sonnet celebrating humble, meditative withdrawal from worldly ambition and 'courtly grandeurs.' The speaker rejects power and honors in favor of quiet communion with nature's rhythms, arguing that true wisdom lies in self-knowledge rather than external renown—a legacy of obscure virtue over public acclaim.

Let him who will, by force or fraud innate,
Of courtly grandeurs gain the slippery height;
I, leaving not the home of my delight,
Far from the world and noise will meditate.
Then, without pomps or perils of the great,
I shall behold the day succeed the night;
Behold the alternate seasons take their flight,
And in serene repose old age await.…

Themes: gratitude · friendship · admiration · reflection