{
 "id": "john-henry-newman/epiphany-eve",
 "title": "Epiphany-Eve",
 "ordinal": "XVII",
 "subtitle": "A Birthday Offering",
 "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": 17,
 "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": 75,
  "n_stanzas": 6,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 41,
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  [
   {
    "text": "Birthday gifts, with the early year,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lo! we bring thee, Mary dear!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Prayer and praise upon thy death",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Twined together in a wreath,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Grief and gladness, such as may",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Suit a solemn holiday.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Christmas snow, for maiden’s bloom",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Blanched in winter’s sudden tomb;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Christmas berries, His red token",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who that grave’s stern seal hath broken;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "These for thee the faithful heart,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Due mementos, sets apart.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "’Twas a fast, that Eve of sorrow,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Herald veil’d of glorious morrow.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Speechless we sat; and watch’d, to know",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "How it would be; but time moved slow,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Along that day of sacred woe.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then came the Feast, and we were told",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bravely of our best to bring,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Myrrh, and frankincense, and gold,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As our tribute to our King.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Dearest, gentlest, purest, best!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Deep is thy mysterious rest,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Now the solemn hours are over",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the Angels round thee hover,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With the fanning of their wings",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Keeping time to one who sings",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of high themes consolatory,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the All-loving and His glory,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the age that has no ending,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the day of thy ascending",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From those shades of paradise",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To the bright supernal skies.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Thinkest of us, dearest, ever?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ah! so be it nought can sever",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Spirit and life, the past and present,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Still we yield thee musings pleasant.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "—God above, and we below;⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So thought ranges, to and fro.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He, in sooth, by tutorings mild,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From the rude clay shaped His child,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fiery trial, anguish chill,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Served not here His secret will;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But His voice was low and tender,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And so true was thy surrender,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That the work in haste was done,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Grace and nature blent in one.⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Harmless thus, and not unmeet,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To kiss the dear prints of thy feet,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Tracing thus the narrow road",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All must tread, and Christ has trod.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Loveliest, meekest, blithest, kindest!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lead! we seek the home thou findest!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though thy name to us most dear,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Go! we would not have thee here.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lead, a guiding beacon bright",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To travellers on the Eve of Light.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Welcome aye thy Star before us,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bring it grief or gladness o’er us;⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Keen regret and tearful yearning,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whiles unfelt, and whiles returning;⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or more gracious thoughts abiding,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fever-quelling, sorrow-chiding;⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or, when day-light blessings fail,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Transport fresh as spice-fraught gale,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sparks from thee, which oft have lighted",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Weary heart and hope benighted.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I this monument would raise,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Distant from the public gaze.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Few will see it;⁠—few e’er knew thee;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But their beating hearts pursue thee⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And their eyes fond thoughts betoken,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though thy name be seldom spoken.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pass on, stranger, and despise it!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "These will read, and these will prize it.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}