{
 "id": "john-henry-newman/the-call-of-david",
 "title": "The Call of David",
 "ordinal": "LXIII",
 "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": 63,
 "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": 36,
  "n_stanzas": 4,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 39,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Latest born of Jesse’s race,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wonder lights thy bashful face,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While the Prophet’s gifted oil",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Seals thee for a path of toil.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We, thy Angels, circling round thee,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ne’er shall find thee as we found thee,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When thy faith first brought us near",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In thy lion-fight severe.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Go! and mid thy flocks awhile",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "At thy doom of greatness smile;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bold to bear God’s heaviest load,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dimly guessing of the road⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rocky road, and scarce ascended,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though thy foot be angel-tended.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Twofold praise thou shalt attain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In royal court and battle plain;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then comes heart-ache, care, distress,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Blighted hope, and loneliness;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wounds from friend and gifts from foe,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dizzied faith, and guilt, and woe;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Loftiest aims by earth defiled,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Gleams of wisdom sin-beguiled,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sated power’s tyrannic mood,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Counsels shared with men of blood,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sad success, parental tears,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And a dreary gift of years.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Strange, that guileless face and form",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To lavish on the scarring storm!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet we take thee in thy blindness,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And we buffet thee in kindness;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Little chary of thy fame⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dust unborn may bless or blame⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But we mould thee for the root",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of man’s promised healing Fruit,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And we mould thee hence to rise,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As our brother, to the skies.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}