{
 "id": "matthew-arnold/calais-sands",
 "title": "Calais Sands",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Matthew Arnold",
 "poet_slug": "matthew-arnold",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "New Poems",
 "book_slug": "new-poems",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 14,
 "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"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 36,
  "n_stanzas": 9,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 44,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "A thousand knights have rein’d their steeds",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To watch this line of sand-hills run,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Along the never-silent Strait,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To Calais glittering in the sun:",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "To look toward Ardres’ Golden Field",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Across this wide aerial plain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which glows as if the Middle Age",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Were gorgeous upon earth again.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Oh, that to share this famous scene",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I saw, upon the open sand,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy lovely presence at my side,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy shawl, thy look, thy smile, thy hand!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "How exquisite thy voice would come,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My darling, on this lonely air!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "How sweetly would the fresh sea-breeze",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shake loose some band of soft brown hair!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Yet now my glance but once hath roved",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O’er Calais and its famous plain;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To England’s cliffs my gaze is turn’d,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On the blue Strait mine eyes I strain.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Thou comest! Yes, the vessel’s cloud",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hangs dark upon the rolling sea!⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Oh that yon seabird’s wings were mine",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To win one instant’s glimpse of thee!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I must not spring to grasp thy hand,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To woo thy smile, to seek thine eye;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But I may stand far off, and gaze,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And watch thee pass unconscious by,",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And spell thy looks, and guess thy thoughts,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mixt with the idlers on the pier.⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ah, might I always rest unseen,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So I might have thee always near!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "To-morrow hurry through the fields",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Flanders to the storied Rhine!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To-night those soft-fringed eyes shall close",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Beneath one roof, my queen! with mine.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}