{
 "id": "john-keats/to-hope",
 "title": "To Hope",
 "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": 48,
  "n_stanzas": 8,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 50,
  "max_indent": 2
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "When by my solitary hearth I sit,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And hateful thoughts enwrap my soul in gloom;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "When no fair dreams before my “mind’s eye” flit,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the bare heath of life presents no bloom;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Sweet Hope, ethereal balm upon me shed,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "And wave thy silver pinions o’er my head.",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Whene’er I wander, at the fall of night,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where woven boughs shut out the moon’s bright ray,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Should sad Despondency my musings fright,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And frown, to drive fair Cheerfulness away,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Peep with the moonbeams through the leafy roof,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "And keep that fiend Despondence far aloof.",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Should Disappointment, parent of Despair,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Strive for her son to seize my careless heart;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "When, like a cloud, he sits upon the air,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Preparing on his spell-bound prey to dart:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Chase him away, sweet Hope, with visage bright,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "And fright him as the morning frightens night!",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Whene’er the fate of those I hold most dear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Tells to my fearful breast a tale of sorrow,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "O bright-eyed Hope, my morbid fancy cheer;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Let me awhile thy sweetest comforts borrow:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy heaven-born radiance around me shed,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "And wave thy silver pinions o’er my head!",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Should e’er unhappy love my bosom pain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From cruel parents, or relentless fair;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "O let me think it is not quite in vain",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To sigh out sonnets to the midnight air!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Sweet Hope, ethereal balm upon me shed,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "And wave thy silver pinions o’er my head.",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "In the long vista of the years to roll,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Let me not see our country’s honour fade:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "O let me see our land retain her soul,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her pride, her freedom; and not freedom’s shade.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "From thy bright eyes unusual brightness shed⁠—",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Beneath thy pinions canopy my head!",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Let me not see the patriot’s high bequest,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Great Liberty! how great in plain attire!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With the base purple of a court oppress’d,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bowing her head, and ready to expire:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But let me see thee stoop from heaven on wings",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "That fill the skies with silver glitterings!",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And as, in sparkling majesty, a star",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Gilds the bright summit of some gloomy cloud",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Brightening the half-veil’d face of heaven afar:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So, when dark thoughts my boding spirit shroud,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Sweet Hope, celestial influence round me shed,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Waving thy silver pinions o’er my head.",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ]
 ]
}