{
 "id": "john-keats/specimen-of-an-induction-to-a-poem",
 "title": "Specimen of an Induction to a Poem",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "John Keats",
 "poet_slug": "john-keats",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Poems",
 "book_slug": "poems",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": null,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1817,
  "venue": "Poems (1817)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/poems008365mbp"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/john-keats_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://archive.org/details/completepoetical01keat",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/005261190"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-12"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 68,
  "n_stanzas": 1,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 53,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Lo! I must tell a tale of chivalry;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For large white plumes are dancing in mine eye.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not like the formal crest of latter days:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But bending in a thousand graceful ways;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So graceful, that it seems no mortal hand,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or e’en the touch of Archimago’s wand,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Could charm them into such an attitude.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We must think rather, that in playful mood,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Some mountain breeze had turned its chief delight,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To show this wonder of its gentle might.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lo! I must tell a tale of chivalry;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For while I muse, the lance points slantingly",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Athwart the morning air; some lady sweet,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who cannot feel for cold her tender feet,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From the worn top of some old battlement",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hails it with tears, her stout defender sent:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And from her own pure self no joy dissembling,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wraps round her ample robe with happy trembling.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sometimes, when the good Knight his rest would take,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It is reflected, clearly, in a lake,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With the young ashen boughs, ’gainst which it rests,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And th’ half-seen mossiness of linnets’ nests.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ah! shall I ever tell its cruelty,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When the fire flashes from a warrior’s eye,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And his tremendous hand is grasping it,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And his dark brow for very wrath is knit?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or when his spirit, with more calm intent,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Leaps to the honours of a tournament,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And makes the gazers round about the ring",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stare at the grandeur of the balancing?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No, no! this is far off:⁠—then how shall I",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Revive the dying tones of minstrelsy,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which linger yet about long gothic arches,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In dark green ivy, and among wild larches?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "How sing the splendour of the revelries,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When butts of wine are drunk off to the lees?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And that bright lance, against the fretted wall,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Beneath the shade of stately banneral,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is slung with shining cuirass, sword, and shield?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where ye may see a spur in bloody field.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Light-footed damsels move with gentle paces",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Round the wide hall, and show their happy faces;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or stand in courtly talk by fives and sevens:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like those fair stars that twinkle in the heavens.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet must I tell a tale of chivalry:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or wherefore comes that knight so proudly by?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wherefore more proudly does the gentle knight",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rein in the swelling of his ample might?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Spenser! thy brows are archèd, open, kind,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And come like a clear sunrise to my mind;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And always does my heart with pleasure dance,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When I think on thy noble countenance;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where never yet was ought more earthly seen",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than the pure freshness of thy laurels green.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Therefore, great bard, I not so fearfully",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Call on thy gentle spirit to hover nigh",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My daring steps: or if thy tender care,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thus startled unaware,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Be jealous that the foot of other wight",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Should madly follow that bright path of light",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Trac’d by thy lov’d Libertas; he will speak,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And tell thee that my prayer is very meek;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That I will follow with due reverence,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And start with awe at mine own strange pretence.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Him thou wilt hear; so I will rest in hope",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To see wide plains, fair trees, and lawny slope:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The morn, the eve, the light, the shade, the flowers;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Clear streams, smooth lakes, and overlooking towers.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}