Skip to content
Linespedia

Ite Domum Satur, venit Hesperus

By Arthur Hugh Clough

Topics: classic

The skies have sunk, and hid the upper snow     (Home, Rose, and home, Provence and La Palie),     The rainy clouds are filing fast below,     And wet will be the path, and wet shall we.     Home, Rose, and home, Provence and La Palie.     Ah dear, and where is he, a year agone,     Who stepped beside and cheered us on and on?     My sweetheart wanders far away from me,     In foreign land or on a foreign sea.     Home, Rose, and home, Provence and La Palie.     The lightning zigzags shoot across the sky     (Home, Rose, and home, Provence and La Palie),     And through the vale the rains go sweeping by;     Ah me, and when in shelter shall we be?     Home, Rose, and home, Provence and La Palie.     Cold, dreary cold, the stormy winds feel they     Oer foreign lands and foreign seas that stray     (Home, Rose, and home, Provence and La Palie).     And doth he eer, I wonder, bring to mind     The pleasant huts and herds he left behind?     And doth he sometimes in his slumbering see     The feeding kine, and doth he think of me,     My sweetheart wandering wheresoeer it be?     Home, Rose, and home, Provence and La Palie.     The thunder bellows far from snow to snow     (Home, Rose, and home, Provence and La Palie),     And loud and louder roars the flood below.     Heigho! but soon in shelter shall we be:     Home, Rose, and home, Provence and La Palie.     Or shall he find before his term be sped,     Some comelier maid that he shall wish to wed?     (Home, Rose, and home, Provence and La Palie.)     For weary is work, and weary day by day     To have your comfort miles on miles away.     Home, Rose, and home, Provence and La Palie.     Or may it be that I shall find my mate,     And he returning see himself too late?     For work we must, and what we see, we see,     And God he knows, and what must be, must be,     When sweethearts wander far away from me.     Home, Rose, and home, Provence and La Palie.     The sky behind is brightening up anew     (Home; Rose, and home, Provence and La Palie),     The rain is ending, and our journey too;     Heigho! aha! for here at home are we:     In, Rose, and in, Provence and La Palie.

AI analysis available. Enable JavaScript to interact.

About this line

"The skies have sunk, and hid the upper snow..."

This evocative piece by Arthur Hugh Clough, titled "Ite Domum Satur, venit Hesperus", represents a masterful exploration of classic. The lines capture a profound emotional resonance... ### Why We Love This Line At Linespedia, we believe that poetry is the ultimate sanctuary for the soul...

Attribution & Rights

Author:Arthur Hugh Clough

"The skies have sunk, and hid the upper snow..." by Arthur Hugh Clough

For usage rights, copyright concerns, or to report an issue with this content, please visit our Copyright & Report page.

Related lines

"Cease, empty Faith, the Spectrum saith,     I was, and lo, have been;     I, God, am nought: a shade of thought,     Which, but by darkness see"

"These are the words of Jacobs wives, the words     Which Leah spake and Rachel to his ears,     When, in the shade at eventide, he sat     By"

"To spend uncounted years of pain,     Again, again, and yet again,     In working out in heart and brain     The problem of our being here;"

"On grass, on gravel, in the sun,     Or now beneath the shade,     They went, in pleasant Kensington,     A prentice and a maid.     That Sun"

"Here morning in the ploughman's songs is met     Ere yet one footstep shows in all the sky,     And twilight in the east, a doubt as yet,     S"

"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

Arthur Hugh Clough

About Arthur Hugh Clough

Arthur Hugh Clough (1819–1861) was an English poet whose work explores Victorian doubt and moral uncertainty. His poems "Say Not the Struggle Naught Availeth" and "The Latest Decalogue" are sharp, thoughtful, and still widely anthologized.

Full Bibliography
Continue Reading

"Cease, empty Faith, the Spectrum saith,     I was,..."

Weekly Poetic Insight

Join our literary Sanctuary

Get the most inspiring lines, poetic analysis, and secret shayaris delivered to your inbox every Sunday.