{
 "id": "edward-thomas/march-the-third",
 "title": "March the Third",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Edward Thomas",
 "poet_slug": "edward-thomas",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Last Poems",
 "book_slug": "last-poems",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 21,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1918,
  "venue": "Last Poems (1918)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/22732"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/edward-thomas_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/22423",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/22732",
   "https://www.google.com/books/edition/Collected_Poems/LMsEAQAAIAAJ",
   "https://www.google.com/books/edition/Two_Poems/3ycPAAAAQAAJ"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 20,
  "n_stanzas": 5,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 40,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Here again (she said) is March the third",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And twelve hours singing for the bird",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Twixt dawn and dusk, from half past six",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To half past six, never unheard.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "’Tis Sunday, and the church-bells end",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When the birds do. I think they blend",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Now better than they will when passed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is this unnamed, unmarked godsend.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Or do all mark, and none dares say,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "How it may shift and long delay,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Somewhere before the first of Spring,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But never fails, this singing day?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And when it falls on Sunday, bells",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Are a wild natural voice that dwells",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On hillsides; but the birds’ songs have",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The holiness gone from the bells.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "This day unpromised is more dear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than all the named days of the year",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When seasonable sweets come in,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Because we know how lucky we are.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}