{
 "id": "c-s-lewis/how-he-saw-angus-the-god",
 "title": "How He Saw Angus the God",
 "ordinal": "XXXIII",
 "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": 29,
 "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-33.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": 44,
  "n_stanzas": 11,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 51,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "I heard the swallow sing in the eaves and rose",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All in a strange delight while others slept,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And down the creaking stair, alone, tip-toes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So carefully I crept.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The house was dark with silly blinds yet drawn,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But outside the clean air was filled with light,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And underneath my feet the cold, wet lawn",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With dew was twinkling bright.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The cobwebs hung from every branch and spray",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Gleaming with pearly strands of laden thread,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And long and still the morning shadows lay",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Across the meadows spread.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "At that pure hour when yet no sound of man,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stirs in the whiteness of the wakening earth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Alone through innocent solitudes I ran",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Singing aloud for mirth.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Till I had found the open mountain heath",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yellow with gorse, and rested there and stood",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To gaze upon the misty sea beneath,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or on the neighbouring wood,",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "—That little wood of hazel and tall pine",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And youngling fir, where oft we have loved to see",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The level beams of early morning shine",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Freshly from tree to tree.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Through the denser wood there’s many a pool",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of deep and night-born shadow lingers yet",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where the new-wakened flowers are damp and cool",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the long grass is wet.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "In the sweet heather long I rested there",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Looking upon the dappled, early sky,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When suddenly, from out the shining air",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A god came flashing by.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Swift, naked, eager, pitilessly fair,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With a live crown of birds about his head,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Singing and fluttering, and his fiery hair,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Far out behind him spread,",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Streamed like a rippling torch upon the breeze",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of his own glorious swiftness: in the grass",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He bruised no feathery stalk, and through the trees",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I saw his whiteness pass.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But when I followed him beyond the wood,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lo! He was changed into a solemn bull",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That there upon the open pasture stood",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And browsed his lazy full.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}