{
 "id": "c-s-lewis/hesperus",
 "title": "Hesperus",
 "ordinal": "XXXV",
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "C. S. Lewis",
 "poet_slug": "c-s-lewis",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Spirits in Bondage",
 "book_slug": "spirits-in-bondage",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 31,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1919,
  "venue": "Spirits in Bondage (1919)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/spiritsinbondage00lewirich",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2003"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/c-s-lewis_poetry",
  "file": "spirits-in-bondage-chapter-35.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2003",
   "https://archive.org/details/spiritsinbondage00lewirich",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/101865124"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 42,
  "n_stanzas": 7,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 35,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Through the starry hollow",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the summer night",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I would follow, follow",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hesperus the bright,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To seek beyond the western wave",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His garden of delight.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Hesperus the fairest",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of all gods that are,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Peace and dreams thou bearest",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In thy shadowy car,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And often in my evening walks",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I’ve blessed thee from afar.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Stars without number,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dust the moon of night,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou the early slumber",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the still delight",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the gentle twilit hours",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rulest in thy right.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "When the pale skies shiver,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Seeing night is done,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Past the ocean-river,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lightly thou dost run,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To look for pleasant, sleepy lands,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That never fear the sun.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Where, beyond the waters",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the outer sea,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy triple crown of daughters",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That guards the golden tree",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sing out across the lonely tide",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A welcome home to thee.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And while the old, old dragon",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For joy lifts up his head,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They bring thee forth a flagon",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of nectar foaming red,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And underneath the drowsy trees",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of poppies strew thy bed.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Ah! that I could follow",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In thy footsteps bright,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Through the starry hollow",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the summer night,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sloping down the western ways",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To find my heart’s delight!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}