{
 "id": "c-s-lewis/worlds-desire",
 "title": "World’s Desire",
 "ordinal": "XXXIX",
 "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": 34,
 "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": {
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  "repo": "standardebooks/c-s-lewis_poetry",
  "file": "spirits-in-bondage-chapter-39.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": 29,
  "n_stanzas": 4,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 68,
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 },
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Love, there is a castle built in a country desolate,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On a rock above a forest where the trees are grim and great,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Blasted with the lightning sharp⁠—giant boulders strewn between,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the mountains rise above, and the cold ravine",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Echoes to the crushing roar and thunder of a mighty river",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Raging down a cataract. Very tower and forest quiver",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the grey wolves are afraid and the call of birds is drowned,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the thought and speech of man in the boiling water’s sound.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But upon the further side of the barren, sharp ravine",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With the sunlight on its turrets is the castle seen,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Calm and very wonderful, white above the green",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the wet and waving forest, slanted all away,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Because the driving Northern wind will not rest by night or day.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet the towers are sure above, very mighty is the stead,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The gates are made of ivory, the roofs of copper red.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Round and round the warders grave walk upon the walls for ever",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the wakeful dragons couch in the ports of ivory,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nothing is can trouble it, hate of the gods nor man’s endeavour,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And it shall be a resting-place, dear heart, for you and me.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Through the wet and waving forest with an age-old sorrow laden",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Singing of the world’s regret wanders wild the faerie maiden,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Through the thistle and the brier, through the tangles of the thorn,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till her eyes be dim with weeping and her homeless feet are torn.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Often to the castle gate up she looks with vain endeavour,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For her soulless loveliness to the castle winneth never.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But within the sacred court, hidden high upon the mountain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wandering in the castle gardens lovely folk enough there be,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Breathing in another air, drinking of a purer fountain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And among that folk, beloved, there’s a place for you and me.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}