{
 "id": "edward-thomas/there-was-a-time",
 "title": "There Was a Time",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Edward Thomas",
 "poet_slug": "edward-thomas",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Last Poems",
 "book_slug": "last-poems",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 51,
 "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": 18,
  "n_stanzas": 1,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 51,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "There was a time when this poor frame was whole",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And I had youth and never another care,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or none that should have troubled a strong soul.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet, except sometimes in a frosty air",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When my heels hammered out a melody",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From pavements of a city left behind,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I never would acknowledge my own glee",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Because it was less mighty than my mind",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Had dreamed of. Since I could not boast of strength",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Great as I wished, weakness was all my boast.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I sought yet hated pity till at length",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I earned it. Oh, too heavy was the cost.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But now that there is something I could use",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My youth and strength for, I deny the age,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The care and weakness that I know⁠—refuse",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To admit I am unworthy of the wage",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Paid to a man who gives up eyes and breath",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For what can neither ask nor heed his death.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}