{
"id": "matthew-arnold/a-southern-night",
"title": "A Southern Night",
"ordinal": null,
"subtitle": null,
"poet": "Matthew Arnold",
"poet_slug": "matthew-arnold",
"language": "en",
"book": "New Poems",
"book_slug": "new-poems",
"book_kind": "volume",
"sequence": null,
"container": null,
"epigraph": null,
"first_published": {
"year": 1867,
"venue": "New Poems (1867)",
"note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
"uncertain": false,
"sources": [
"https://archive.org/details/newpoems00arno"
]
},
"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",
"corrections": [
{
"line": 14,
"was": "So moonlit, saw me once of yore40",
"now": "So moonlit, saw me once of yore",
"why": "A Standard Ebooks endnote marker () carried into the text by extraction; not present on the printed page.",
"checked_against": "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/27739",
"date": "2026-08-12"
},
{
"line": 19,
"was": "My brother! and thine early lot,41",
"now": "My brother! and thine early lot,",
"why": "A Standard Ebooks endnote marker () carried into the text by extraction; not present on the printed page.",
"checked_against": "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/27739",
"date": "2026-08-12"
}
]
},
"stats": {
"n_lines": 140,
"n_stanzas": 35,
"n_parts": 0,
"longest_line_chars": 44,
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"stanzas": [
[
{
"text": "The sandy spits, the shore-lock’d lakes,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Melt into open, moonlit sea;",
"indent": 1
},
{
"text": "The soft Mediterranean breaks",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "At my feet, free.",
"indent": 3
}
],
[
{
"text": "Dotting the fields of corn and vine,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Like ghosts the huge, gnarl’d olives stand;",
"indent": 1
},
{
"text": "Behind, that lovely mountain-line!",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "While, by the strand,",
"indent": 3
}
],
[
{
"text": "Cette, with its glistening houses white,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Curves with the curving beach away",
"indent": 1
},
{
"text": "To where the lighthouse beacons bright",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Far in the bay.",
"indent": 3
}
],
[
{
"text": "Ah, such a night, so soft, so lone,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "So moonlit, saw me once of yore",
"indent": 1
},
{
"text": "Wander unquiet, and my own",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Vext heart deplore!",
"indent": 3
}
],
[
{
"text": "But now that trouble is forgot;",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Thy memory, thy pain, to-night,",
"indent": 1
},
{
"text": "My brother! and thine early lot,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Possess me quite.",
"indent": 3
}
],
[
{
"text": "The murmur of this Midland deep",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Is heard to-night around thy grave",
"indent": 1
},
{
"text": "There where Gibraltar’s cannon’d steep",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "O’erfrowns the wave.",
"indent": 3
}
],
[
{
"text": "For there, with bodily anguish keen,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "With Indian heats at last fordone,",
"indent": 1
},
{
"text": "With public toil and private teen,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Thou sank’st, alone.",
"indent": 3
}
],
[
{
"text": "Slow to a stop, at morning grey,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "I see the smoke-crown’d vessel come;",
"indent": 1
},
{
"text": "Slow round her paddles dies away",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "The seething foam.",
"indent": 3
}
],
[
{
"text": "A boat is lower’d from her side;",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Ah, gently place him on the bench!",
"indent": 1
},
{
"text": "That spirit—if all have not yet died—",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "A breath might quench.",
"indent": 3
}
],
[
{
"text": "Is this the eye, the footstep fast,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "The mien of youth we used to see,",
"indent": 1
},
{
"text": "Poor, gallant boy!—for such thou wast,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Still art, to me.",
"indent": 3
}
],
[
{
"text": "The limbs their wonted tasks refuse;",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "The eyes are glazed, thou canst not speak;",
"indent": 1
},
{
"text": "And whiter than thy white burnous",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "That wasted cheek!",
"indent": 3
}
],
[
{
"text": "Enough! The boat, with quiet shock,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Unto its haven coming nigh,",
"indent": 1
},
{
"text": "Touches, and on Gibraltar’s rock",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Lands thee, to die.",
"indent": 3
}
],
[
{
"text": "Ah me! Gibraltar’s strand is far,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "But farther yet across the brine",
"indent": 1
},
{
"text": "Thy dear wife’s ashes buried are,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Remote from thine.",
"indent": 3
}
],
[
{
"text": "For there where Morning’s sacred fount",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Its golden rain on earth confers,",
"indent": 1
},
{
"text": "The snowy Himalayan Mount",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "O’ershadows hers.",
"indent": 3
}
],
[
{
"text": "Strange irony of Fate, alas,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Which for two jaded English saves,",
"indent": 1
},
{
"text": "When from their dusty life they pass,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Such peaceful graves!",
"indent": 3
}
],
[
{
"text": "In cities should we English lie,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Where cries are rising ever new,",
"indent": 1
},
{
"text": "And men’s incessant stream goes by;",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "We who pursue",
"indent": 3
}
],
[
{
"text": "Our business with unslackening stride,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Traverse in troops, with care-fill’d breast,",
"indent": 1
},
{
"text": "The soft Mediterranean side,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "The Nile, the East,",
"indent": 3
}
],
[
{
"text": "And see all sights from pole to pole,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "And glance, and nod, and bustle by;",
"indent": 1
},
{
"text": "And never once possess our soul",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Before we die.",
"indent": 3
}
],
[
{
"text": "Not by those hoary Indian hills,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Not by this gracious Midland sea",
"indent": 1
},
{
"text": "Whose floor to-night sweet moonshine fills,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Should our graves be!",
"indent": 3
}
],
[
{
"text": "Some sage, to whom the world was dead,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "And men were specks, and life a play;",
"indent": 1
},
{
"text": "Who made the roots of trees his bed,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "And once a day",
"indent": 3
}
],
[
{
"text": "With staff and gourd his way did bend",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "To villages and homes of man,",
"indent": 1
},
{
"text": "For food to keep him till he end",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "His mortal span,",
"indent": 3
}
],
[
{
"text": "And the pure goal of Being reach;",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Grey-headed, wrinkled, clad in white,",
"indent": 1
},
{
"text": "Without companion, without speech,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "By day and night",
"indent": 3
}
],
[
{
"text": "Pondering God’s mysteries untold,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "And tranquil as the glacier snows—",
"indent": 1
},
{
"text": "He by those Indian mountains old",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Might well repose!",
"indent": 3
}
],
[
{
"text": "Some grey crusading knight austere",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Who bore Saint Louis company",
"indent": 1
},
{
"text": "And came home hurt to death, and here",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Landed to die;",
"indent": 3
}
],
[
{
"text": "Some youthful troubadour whose tongue",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Fill’d Europe once with his love-pain,",
"indent": 1
},
{
"text": "Who here outwearied had sunk, and sung",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "His dying strain;",
"indent": 3
}
],
[
{
"text": "Some girl who here from castle-bower,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "With furtive step and cheek of flame,",
"indent": 1
},
{
"text": "’Twixt myrtle-hedges all in flower",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "By moonlight came",
"indent": 3
}
],
[
{
"text": "To meet her pirate-lover’s ship,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "And from the wave-kiss’d marble stair",
"indent": 1
},
{
"text": "Beckon’d him on, with quivering lip",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "And unbound hair,",
"indent": 3
}
],
[
{
"text": "And lived some moons in happy trance,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Then learnt his death and pined away—",
"indent": 1
},
{
"text": "Such by these waters of romance",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "’Twas meet to lay!",
"indent": 3
}
],
[
{
"text": "But you—a grave for knight or sage,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Romantic, solitary, still,",
"indent": 1
},
{
"text": "O spent ones of a work-day age!",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Befits you ill.",
"indent": 3
}
],
[
{
"text": "So sang I; but the midnight breeze",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Down to the brimm’d moon-charmèd main,",
"indent": 1
},
{
"text": "Comes softly through the olive-trees,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "And checks my strain.",
"indent": 3
}
],
[
{
"text": "I think of her, whose gentle tongue",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "All plaint in her own cause controll’d;",
"indent": 1
},
{
"text": "Of thee I think, my brother! young",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "In heart, high-soul’d;",
"indent": 3
}
],
[
{
"text": "That comely face, that cluster’d brow,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "That cordial hand, that bearing free,",
"indent": 1
},
{
"text": "I see them still, I see them now,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Shall always see!",
"indent": 3
}
],
[
{
"text": "And what but gentleness untired,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "And what but noble feeling warm,",
"indent": 1
},
{
"text": "Wherever shown, howe’er inspired,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Is grace, is charm?",
"indent": 3
}
],
[
{
"text": "What else is all these waters are,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "What else is steep’d in lucid sheen,",
"indent": 1
},
{
"text": "What else is bright, what else is fair,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "What else serene?",
"indent": 3
}
],
[
{
"text": "Mild o’er her grave, ye mountains, shine!",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Gently by his, ye waters, glide!",
"indent": 1
},
{
"text": "To that in you which is divine",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "They were allied.",
"indent": 3
}
]
]
}