{
 "id": "john-henry-newman/snapdragon",
 "title": "Snapdragon",
 "ordinal": "VII",
 "subtitle": "A Riddle for a Flower Book",
 "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": 7,
 "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": 58,
  "n_stanzas": 4,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 42,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "I am rooted in the wall",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of buttress’d tower or ancient hall;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Prison’d in an art-wrought bed.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Cased in mortar, cramp’d with lead;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of a living stock alone",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Brother of the lifeless stone.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Else unprized, I have my worth",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On the spot that gives me birth;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nature’s vast and varied field",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Braver flowers than me will yield,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bold in form and rich in hue,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Children of a purer dew;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Smiling lips and winning eyes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Meet for earthly paradise.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Choice are such⁠—and yet thou knowest",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Highest he whose lot is lowest.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They, proud hearts, a home reject",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Framed by human architect;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Humble-I can bear to dwell",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Near the pale recluse’s cell,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And I spread my crimson bloom,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mingled with the cloister’s gloom.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Life’s gay gifts and honours rare,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Flowers of favour! win and wear!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rose of beauty, be the queen",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In pleasure’s ring and festive scene.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ivy, climb and cluster, where",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lordly oaks vouchsafe a stair.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Vaunt, fair Lily, stately dame,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pride of birth and pomp of name.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Miser Crocus, starved with cold,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hide in earth thy timid gold.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Travell’d Dahlia, freely boast",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Knowledge brought from foreign coast.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pleasure, wealth, birth, knowledge, power,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "These have each an emblem flower;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So for me alone remains",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lowly thought and cheerful pains.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Be it mine to set restraint",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On roving wish and selfish plaint;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And for man’s drear haunts to leave",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dewy morn and balmy eve.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Be it mine the barren stone",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To deck with green life not its own.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So to soften and to grace",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of human works the rugged face.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mine, the Unseen to display",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the crowded public way,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where life’s busy arts combine",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To shut out the Hand Divine.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Ah! no more a scentless flower,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By approving Heaven’s high power,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Suddenly my leaves exhale",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fragrance of the Syrian gale.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ah! ’tis timely comfort given",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By the answering breath of Heaven!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "May it be! then well might I",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In College cloister live and die.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}