{
 "id": "edward-thomas/the-sun-used-to-shine",
 "title": "The Sun Used to Shine",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Edward Thomas",
 "poet_slug": "edward-thomas",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Poems",
 "book_slug": "poems",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 47,
 "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": 32,
  "n_stanzas": 8,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 44,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "The sun used to shine while we two walked",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Slowly together, paused and started",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Again, and sometimes mused, sometimes talked",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As either pleased, and cheerfully parted",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Each night. We never disagreed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which gate to rest on. The to be",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the late past we gave small heed.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We turned from men or poetry",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "To rumours of the war remote",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Only till both stood disinclined",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For aught but the yellow flavorous coat",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of an apple wasps had undermined;",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Or a sentry of dark betonies,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The stateliest of small flowers on earth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "At the forest verge; or crocuses",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pale purple as if they had their birth",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "In sunless Hades fields. The war",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Came back to mind with the moonrise",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which soldiers in the east afar",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Beheld then. Nevertheless, our eyes",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Could as well imagine the Crusades",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or Caesar’s battles. Everything",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To faintness like those rumours fades⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like the brook’s water glittering",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Under the moonlight⁠—like those walks",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Now⁠—like us two that took them, and",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The fallen apples, all the talks",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And silences⁠—like memory’s sand",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "When the tide covers it late or soon,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And other men through other flowers",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In those fields under the same moon",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Go talking and have easy hours.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}