{
 "id": "john-henry-newman/my-lady-nature-and-her-daughters",
 "title": "My Lady Nature and Her Daughters",
 "ordinal": "XI",
 "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": 11,
 "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": 90,
  "n_stanzas": 5,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 42,
  "max_indent": 2
 },
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Ladies, well I deem, delight",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In comely tire to move;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Soft, and delicate, and bright,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Are the robes they love.",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Silks, where hues alternate play,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shawls, and scarfs, and mantles gay,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Gold, and gems, and crispèd hair,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fling their light o’er lady fair.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Tis not waste, nor sinful pride,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "—Name them not, nor fault beside⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But her very cheerfulness",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Prompts and weaves the curious dress;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While her holy thoughts still roam",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mid birth-friends and scenes of home.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pleased to please whose praise is dear,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Glitters she? she glitters there;⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And she has a pattern found her",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In Nature’s glowing world around her.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Nature loves, as lady bright,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In gayest guise to shine,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "All forms of grace, all tints of light,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fringe her robe divine.",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Sun-lit heaven, and rain-bow cloud,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Changeful main, and mountain proud,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Branching tree, and meadow green,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All are deck’d in broider’d sheen.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not a bird on bough-propp’d tower,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Insect slim, nor tiny flower,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stone, nor spar, nor shell of sea,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But is fair in its degree.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Tis not pride, this vaunt of beauty;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Well she ’quits her trust of duty;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And, amid her gorgeous state,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bright, and bland, and delicate,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ever beaming from her face",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Praise of a Father’s love we trace.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Ladies, shrinking from the view",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the prying day,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "In tranquil diligence pursue",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their heaven-appointed way.",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Noiseless duties, silent cares,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mercies lighting unawares,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Modest influence working good,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Gifts, by the keen heart understood,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Such as viewless spirits might give,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "These they love, in these they live.⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mighty Nature speeds her through",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her daily toils in silence too:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Calmly rolls her giant spheres,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sheds by stealth her dew’s kind tears;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Cheating sage’s vex’d pursuit,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Churns the sap, matures the fruit,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And, her deft hand still concealing,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Kindles motion, life, and feeling.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Ladies love to laugh and sing,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To rouse the chord’s full sound,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Or to join the festive ring",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where dancers gather round.",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Not a sight so fair on earth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As a lady’s graceful mirth;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not a sound so chasing pain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As a lady’s thrilling strain.⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor is Nature left behind",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In her lighter moods of mind;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Calm her duties to fulfil,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In her glee a prattler still.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bird and beast of every sort",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hath its antic and its sport;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Chattering brook, and dancing gnat,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Subtle cry of evening bat,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Moss uncouth, and twigs grotesque,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "These are Nature’s picturesque.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Where the birth of Poesy?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Its fancy and its fire?",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Nature’s earth, and sea, and sky,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fervid thoughts inspire.",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Where do wealth and power find rest,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When hopes have fail’d, or toil oppress’d?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Parks, and lawns, and deer, and trees,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nature’s work, restore them ease.⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rare the rich, the gifted rare⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where shall work-day souls repair,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Unennobled, unrefined,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From the rude world and unkind?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who shall friend their lowly lot?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "High-born Nature answers not.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Leave her in her starry dome,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Seek we lady-lighted home.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nature ’mid the spheres bears sway,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ladies rule where hearts obey.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}