{
 "id": "john-henry-newman/nature-and-art",
 "title": "Nature and Art",
 "ordinal": "V",
 "subtitle": "For an Album",
 "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": 5,
 "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": 72,
  "n_stanzas": 12,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 45,
  "max_indent": 2
 },
 "site_ready": true,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "“Man goeth forth” with reckless trust",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Upon his wealth of mind,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "As if in self a thing of dust",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Creative skill might find;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "He schemes and toils; stone, wood and ore",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Subject or weapon of His power.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "By arch and spire, by tower-girt heights,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He would his boast fulfil;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "By marble births, and mimic lights⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet lacks one secret still;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Where is the master-hand shall give",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To breathe, to move, to speak, to live?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O take away this shade of might,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The puny toil of man,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "And let great Nature in my sight",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Unroll her gorgeous plan;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "I cannot bear those sullen walls,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Those eyeless towers, those tongueless halls.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Art’s labour’d toys of highest name",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Are nerveless, cold, and dumb;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "And man is fitted but to frame",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A coffin or a tomb;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Well suits, when sense is pass’d away,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Such lifeless works the lifeless clay.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Here let me sit where wooded hills",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Skirt yon far-reaching plain;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "While cattle bank its winding rills,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And suns embrown its grain;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Such prospect is to me right dear,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For freedom, health, and joy are here.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "There is a spirit ranging through",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The earth, the stream, the air;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Ten thousand shapes, garbs ever new,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That busy One doth wear;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "In colour, scent, and taste, and sound",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The energy of Life is found.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The leaves are rustling in the breeze,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The bird renews her song;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "From field to brook, o’er heath, o’er trees,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The sunbeam glides along;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "The insect, happy in its hour,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Floats softly by, or sips the flower.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Now dewy rain descends, and now",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Brisk showers the welkin shroud;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "I care not, though with angry brow",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Frowns the red thunder-cloud;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Let hail-storm pelt, and lightning harm,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Tis Nature’s work, and has its charm.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Ah! lovely Nature! others dwell",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Full favour’d in thy court;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "I of thy smiles but hear them tell,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And feed on their report,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Catching what glimpse an Ulcombe yields",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To strangers loitering in her fields.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I go where form has ne’er unbent",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The sameness of its sway;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Where iron rule, stern precedent,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mistreat the graceful day;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "To pine as prisoner in his cell,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And yet be thought to love it well.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Yet so His high dispose has set,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who binds on each his part;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Though absent, I may cherish yet",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "An Ulcombe of the heart;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Calm verdant hope divinely given,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And suns of peace, and scenes of heaven;⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "A soul prepared His will to meet,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Full fix’d His work to do;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Not laboured into sudden heat,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But inly born anew.⁠—",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "So living Nature, not dull Art,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shall plan my ways and rule my heart.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}