[REQUIESCAT][°]
This poem, one of Arnold's best-known shorter lyrics, combines with perfect taste, simplicity and elegance, with the truest pathos. It has been said there is not a false note in it.
[13.] cabin'd. Used in the sense of being cramped for space.
[16.] vasty. Spacious, boundless.
What is the significance of strewing on the roses? Why "never a spray of yew"? (See note, l.[140], The Scholar-Gipsy.) What seems to be the author's attitude toward death? (Read his poem, A Wish.) Discuss the poem as to its lyrical qualities.
[CONSOLATION][°]
[14.] Holy Lassa (that is, Land of the Divine Intelligence), the capital city of Thibet and residence of the Dalai, or Grand Lama, the pontifical sovereign of Thibet and East Asia. Here is located the great temple of Buddha, a vast square edifice, surmounted by a gilded dome, the temple, together with its precincts, covering an area of many acres. Contiguous to it, on its four sides, are four celebrated monasteries, occupied by four thousand recluses, and resorted to as schools of the Buddhic religion and philosophy. There is, perhaps, no other one place in the world where so much gold is accumulated for superstitious purposes.
[17.] Muses. See note, l. [120], The Strayed Reveller.
[18.] In their cool gallery. That is, in the Vatican art gallery at Rome.
[19.] yellow Tiber. So called by the ancients because of the yellowish, muddy appearance of its waters.