{
 "id": "edward-thomas/the-manor-farm",
 "title": "The Manor Farm",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Edward Thomas",
 "poet_slug": "edward-thomas",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Poems",
 "book_slug": "poems",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 5,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1917,
  "venue": "Poems (1917)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/22423"
  ]
 },
 "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": 24,
  "n_stanzas": 2,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 54,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "The rock-like mud unfroze a little and rills",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ran and sparkled down each side of the road",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Under the catkins wagging in the hedge.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But earth would have her sleep out, spite of the sun;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor did I value that thin gilding beam",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "More than a pretty February thing",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till I came down to the old Manor Farm,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And church and yew-tree opposite, in age",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Its equals and in size. The church and yew",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And farmhouse slept in a Sunday silentness.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The air raised not a straw. The steep farm roof,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With tiles duskily glowing, entertained",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The mid-day sun; and up and down the roof",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "White pigeons nestled. There was no sound but one.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Three cart-horses were looking over a gate",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Drowsily through their forelocks, swishing their tails",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Against a fly, a solitary fly.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The Winter’s cheek flushed as if he had drained",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Spring, Summer, and Autumn at a draught",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And smiled quietly. But ’twas not Winter⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rather a season of bliss unchangeable",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Awakened from farm and church where it had lain",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Safe under tile and thatch for ages since",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This England, Old already, was called Merry.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}