{
 "id": "matthew-arnold/desire",
 "title": "Desire",
 "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",
  "corrections": [
   {
    "line": null,
    "was": "Desire2",
    "now": "Desire",
    "why": "A Standard Ebooks endnote marker (<a epub:type=\"noteref\">) carried into the text by extraction; not present on the printed page.",
    "checked_against": "https://archive.org/details/poemsofmatthewar00arnouoft",
    "date": "2026-08-12",
    "field": "title"
   }
  ]
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 62,
  "n_stanzas": 3,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 41,
  "max_indent": 4
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Thou, who dost dwell alone⁠—",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou, who dost know thine own⁠—",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou, to whom all are known",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "From the cradle to the grave⁠—",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Save, oh, save.",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "From the world’s temptations,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "From tribulations;",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "From that fierce anguish",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Wherein we languish;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "From that torpor deep",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Wherein we lie asleep,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Heavy as death, cold as the grave;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Save, oh, save.",
    "indent": 4
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "When the Soul, growing clearer,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Sees God no nearer:",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "When the Soul, mounting higher,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "To God comes no nigher:",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "But the arch-fiend Pride",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Mounts at her side,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Foiling her high emprize,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Sealing her eagle eyes,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "And, when she fain would soar,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Makes idols to adore;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Changing the pure emotion",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Of her high devotion,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "To a skin-deep sense",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Of her own eloquence:",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Strong to deceive, strong to enslave⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Save, oh, save.",
    "indent": 4
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "From the ingrain’d fashion",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Of this earthly nature",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "That mars thy creature.",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "From grief, that is but passion;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "From mirth, that is but feigning;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "From tears, that bring no healing;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "From wild and weak complaining;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Thine old strength revealing,",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Save, oh, save.",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "From doubt, where all is double:",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Where wise men are not strong:",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Where comfort turns to trouble:",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Where just men suffer wrong:",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Where sorrow treads on joy:",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Where sweet things soonest cloy:",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Where faiths are built on dust:",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Where Love is half mistrust,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Hungry, and barren, and sharp as the sea;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Oh, set us free.",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "O let the false dream fly",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Where our sick souls do lie",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Tossing continually.",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "O where thy voice doth come",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Let all doubts be dumb:",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Let all words be mild:",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "All strifes be reconcil’d:",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "All pains beguil’d.",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Light bring no blindness;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Love no unkindness;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Knowledge no ruin;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Fear no undoing.",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "From the cradle to the grave,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Save, oh, save.",
    "indent": 4
   }
  ]
 ]
}