{
 "id": "john-henry-newman/consolations-in-bereavement",
 "title": "Consolations in Bereavement",
 "ordinal": "IX",
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "John Henry Newman",
 "poet_slug": "john-henry-newman",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Verses on Various Occasions",
 "book_slug": "verses-on-various-occasions",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 9,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1903,
  "venue": "Verses on Various Occasions (1903)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/a600744000newmuoft"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/john-henry-newman_verses-on-various-occasions",
  "file": "verses-on-various-occasions.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "http://www.newmanreader.org/works/verses",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/009038168",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/48927",
   "https://archive.org/details/dreamofgerontius01newmuoft"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 42,
  "n_stanzas": 7,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 62,
  "max_indent": 8
 },
 "site_ready": true,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Death was full urgent with thee, Sister dear,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And startling in his speed;⁠—",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Brief pain, then languor till thy end came near⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Such was the path decreed,",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "The hurried road",
    "indent": 8
   },
   {
    "text": "To lead thy soul from earth to thine own God’s abode.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Death wrought with thee, sweet maid, impatiently:⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet merciful the haste",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "That baffles sickness;⁠—dearest, thou didst die,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou wast not made to taste",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Death’s bitterness,",
    "indent": 8
   },
   {
    "text": "Decline’s slow-wasting charm, or fever’s fierce distress.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Death came unheralded:⁠—but it was well;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For so thy Saviour bore",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Kind witness, thou wast meet at once to dwell",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On His eternal shore;",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "All warning spared,",
    "indent": 8
   },
   {
    "text": "For none He gives where hearts are for prompt change prepared.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Death wrought in mystery; both complaint and cure",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To human skill unknown:⁠—",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "God put aside all means, to make us sure",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It was His deed alone;",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Lest we should lay",
    "indent": 8
   },
   {
    "text": "Reproach on our poor selves, that thou wast caught away.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Death urged as scant of time:⁠—lest, Sister dear,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We many a lingering day",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Had sicken’d with alternate hope and fear,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The ague of delay;",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Watching each spark",
    "indent": 8
   },
   {
    "text": "Of promise quench’d in turn, till all our sky was dark.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Death came and went:⁠—that so thy image might",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Our yearning hearts possess,",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Associate with all pleasant thoughts and bright,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With youth and loveliness;",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Sorrow can claim,",
    "indent": 8
   },
   {
    "text": "Mary, nor lot nor part in thy soft soothing name.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Joy of sad hearts, and light of downcast eyes!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dearest thou art enshrined",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "In all thy fragrance in our memories;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For we must ever find",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Bare thought of thee",
    "indent": 8
   },
   {
    "text": "Freshen this weary life, while weary life shall be.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}