{
 "id": "matthew-arnold/a-memory-picture",
 "title": "A Memory-Picture",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Matthew Arnold",
 "poet_slug": "matthew-arnold",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "The Strayed Reveller, and Other Poems",
 "book_slug": "the-strayed-reveller",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": null,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1849,
  "venue": "The Strayed Reveller, and Other Poems (1849)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/strayedrevellero00arno"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/matthew-arnold_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/27739",
   "https://archive.org/details/poemsofmatthewar00arnouoft",
   "https://archive.org/details/poeticalworksofm00arn",
   "https://archive.org/details/inmemoriamawrea00marsgoog"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-12"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 72,
  "n_stanzas": 9,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 37,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Laugh, my Friends, and without blame",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lightly quit what lightly came:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rich to-morrow as to-day",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Spend as madly as you may.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I, with little land to stir,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Am the exacter labourer.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ere the parting hour go by,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Quick, thy tablets, Memory!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But my Youth reminds me⁠—“Thou",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hast liv’d light as these live now:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As these are, thou too wert such:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Much hast had, hast squander’d much.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fortune’s now less frequent heir,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ah! I husband what’s grown rare.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ere the parting hour go by,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Quick, thy tablets, Memory!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Young, I said: “A face is gone",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If too hotly mus’d upon:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And our best impressions are",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Those that do themselves repair.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Many a face I then let by,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ah! is faded utterly.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ere the parting hour go by,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Quick, thy tablets, Memory!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Marguerite says: “As last year went,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So the coming year’ll be spent:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Some day next year, I shall be,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Entering heedless, kiss’d by thee.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ah! I hope⁠—yet, once away,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What may chain us, who can say?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ere the parting hour go by,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Quick, thy tablets, Memory!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Paint that lilac kerchief, bound",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her soft face, her hair around:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Tied under the archest chin",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mockery ever ambush’d in.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Let the fluttering fringes streak",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All her pale, sweet-rounded cheek.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ere the parting hour go by,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Quick, thy tablets, Memory!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Paint that figure’s pliant grace",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As she towards me lean’d her face,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Half refus’d and half resign’d,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Murmuring, “Art thou still unkind?”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Many a broken promise then",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Was new made⁠—to break again.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ere the parting hour go by,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Quick, thy tablets, Memory!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Paint those eyes, so blue, so kind,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Eager tell-tales of her mind:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Paint, with their impetuous stress",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of inquiring tenderness,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Those frank eyes, where deep doth lie",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "An angelic gravity.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ere the parting hour go by,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Quick, thy tablets, Memory!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "What, my Friends, these feeble lines",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Show, you say, my love declines?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To paint ill as I have done,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Proves forgetfulness begun?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Time’s gay minions, pleas’d you see,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Time, your master, governs me.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pleased, you mock the fruitless cry",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“Quick, thy tablets, Memory!”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Ah! too true. Time’s current strong",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Leaves us true to nothing long.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet, if little stays with man,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ah! retain we all we can!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If the clear impression dies,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ah! the dim remembrance prize!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ere the parting hour go by,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Quick, thy tablets, Memory!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}