{
 "id": "john-keats/the-eve-of-st-mark",
 "title": "The Eve of St. Mark",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": "A Fragment",
 "poet": "John Keats",
 "poet_slug": "john-keats",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Life, Letters, and Literary Remains, of John Keats",
 "book_slug": "life-letters-and-literary-remains",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 11,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1848,
  "venue": "Life, Letters, and Literary Remains, of John Keats (1848)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/lifelettersliter00keat",
   "https://archive.org/details/lifelettersliter02keat"
  ]
 },
 "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": "2026-08-19",
  "corrections": [
   {
    "line": 99,
    "field": "indent",
    "was": 0,
    "now": 2,
    "why": "Indentation absent from the source markup and measured from the scan: this line starts 6.2 character advances (~3.1 em) right of its own page's base margin, where the verse sets flush. Converted at 3.0 advances per indent level (tools/defects.py indent).",
    "checked_against": "https://archive.org/details/completepoetical01keat",
    "date": "2026-08-20"
   }
  ]
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 119,
  "n_stanzas": 6,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 41,
  "max_indent": 2
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 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Upon a Sabbath-day it fell;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Twice holy was the Sabbath-bell,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That call’d the folk to evening prayer;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The city streets were clean and fair",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From wholesome drench of April rains;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And, on the western window panes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The chilly sunset faintly told",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of unmatured green valleys cold,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the green thorny bloomless hedge,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of rivers new with spring-tide sedge,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of primroses by shelter’d rills,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And daisies on the aguish hills.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Twice holy was the Sabbath-bell:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The silent streets were crowded well",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With staid and pious companies,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Warm from their fireside orat’ries;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And moving, with demurest air,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To even-song, and vesper prayer.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Each arched porch, and entry low,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Was fill’d with patient folk and slow,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With whispers hush, and shuffling feet,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While play’d the organ loud and sweet.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The bells had ceased, the prayers begun,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And Bertha had not yet half done",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A curious volume, patch’d and torn,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That all day long, from earliest morn,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Had taken captive her two eyes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Among its golden broideries;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Perplex’d her with a thousand things,⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The stars of Heaven, and angels’ wings,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Martyrs in a fiery blaze,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Azure saints and silver rays,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Moses’ breastplate and the seven",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Candlesticks John saw in Heaven,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The winged Lion of Saint Mark,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the Covenantal Ark,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With its many mysteries,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Cherubim and golden mice.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Bertha was a maiden fair,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dwelling in th’ old Minster-square;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From her fireside she could see,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sidelong, its rich antiquity,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Far as the Bishop’s garden wall;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where sycamores and elm-trees tall,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Full-leaved, the forest had outstript,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By no sharp north-wind ever nipt,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So shelter’d by the mighty pile.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bertha arose, and read awhile,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With forehead ’gainst the window-pane.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Again she tried, and then again,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Until the dusk eve left her dark",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Upon the legend of St. Mark.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From plaited lawn-frill, fine and thin,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She lifted up her soft warm chin,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With aching neck and swimming eyes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And dazed with saintly imag’ries.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "All was gloom, and silent all,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Save now and then the still foot-fall",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of one returning homewards late,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Past the echoing minster-gate.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The clamorous daws, that all the day",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Above tree-tops and towers play,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pair by pair had gone to rest,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Each in its ancient belfry-nest,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where asleep they fall betimes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To music and the drowsy chimes.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "All was silent, all was gloom,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Abroad and in the homely room:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Down she sat, poor cheated soul!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And struck a lamp from the dismal coal;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lean’d forward, with bright drooping hair",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And slant book, full against the glare.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her shadow, in uneasy guise,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hover’d about, a giant size,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On ceiling-beam and old oak chair,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The parrot’s cage, and panel-square;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the warm angled winter-screen,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On which were many monsters seen,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Call’d doves of Siam, Lima mice,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And legless birds of Paradise,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Macaw, and tender Avadavat,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And silken-furr’d Angora cat.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Untired she read, her shadow still",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Glower’d about, as it would fill",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The room with wildest forms and shades,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As though some ghostly queen of spades",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Had come to mock behind her back,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And dance, and ruffle her garments black.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Untired she read the legend page,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of holy Mark, from youth to age,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On land, on sea, in pagan chains,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rejoicing for his many pains.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sometimes the learned eremite,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With golden star, or dagger bright,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Referr’d to pious poesies",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Written in smallest crow-quill size",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Beneath the text; and thus the rhyme",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Was parcell’d out from time to time:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "⸺“Als writith he of swevenis,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Men han beforne they wake in bliss,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whanne that hir friendes thinke him bound",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In crimped shroude farre under grounde;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And how a litling child mote be",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A saint er its nativitie,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Gif that the modre (God her blesse!)",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Kepen in solitarinesse,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And kissen devoute the holy croce,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Goddes love, and Sathan’s force,⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He writith; and thinges many mo",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of swiche thinges I may not show.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bot I must tellen verilie",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Somdel of Saintè Cicilie,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And chieflie what he auctorethe",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Saintè Markis life and dethe:”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "At length her constant eyelids come",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Upon the fervent martyrdom;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then lastly to his holy shrine,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Exalt amid the tapers’ shine",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "At Venice,⁠⸺⁠",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ],
 "notes": [
  {
   "id": "heading-is-subtitle-and-running-heads",
   "kind": "defect",
   "raised": "2026-08-19",
   "what": "defects.py sections flags this record on A FRAGMENT and an OCR running head (THE EVE OF ST. MARK). A Fragment is already subtitle. the 1900 Houghton Mifflin Cabinet Edition lists The Eve of St. Mark as one poem.",
   "consequence": "Left as one poem. The flag list is not the split list.",
   "to_settle": "Nothing on the verse. A cleaner witness would drop the running-head flag.",
   "checked_against": [
    "https://archive.org/details/completepoetical01keat"
   ]
  }
 ]
}