{
 "id": "matthew-arnold/memorial-verses",
 "title": "Memorial Verses",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": "April, 1850",
 "poet": "Matthew Arnold",
 "poet_slug": "matthew-arnold",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Empedocles on Etna, and Other Poems",
 "book_slug": "empedocles-on-etna",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 10,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1852,
  "venue": "Empedocles on Etna, and Other Poems (1852)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/empedoclesonetna00arno"
  ]
 },
 "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": "Memorial Verses23",
    "now": "Memorial Verses",
    "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://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/27739",
    "date": "2026-08-12",
    "field": "title"
   },
   {
    "line": 33,
    "was": "And headlong fate, be happiness.24",
    "now": "And headlong fate, be happiness.",
    "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://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/27739",
    "date": "2026-08-12"
   }
  ]
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 74,
  "n_stanzas": 6,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 42,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Goethe in Weimar sleeps, and Greece,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Long since, saw Byron’s struggle cease.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But one such death remain’d to come;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The last poetic voice is dumb.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What shall be said o’er Wordsworth’s tomb?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "When Byron’s eyes were shut in death,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "We bow’d our head and held our breath.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He taught us little: but our soul",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Had felt him like the thunder’s roll.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With shivering heart the strife we saw",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Passion with Eternal Law;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And yet with reverential awe",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We watch’d the fount of fiery life",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which serv’d for that Titanic strife.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "When Goethe’s death was told, we said⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Sunk, then, is Europe’s sagest head.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Physician of the Iron Age,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Goethe has done his pilgrimage.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He took the suffering human race,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He read each wound, each weakness clear⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And struck his finger on the place,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And said⁠—Thou ailest here, and here.⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He look’d on Europe’s dying hour",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of fitful dream and feverish power;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His eye plung’d down the weltering strife,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The turmoil of expiring life;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He said⁠—The end is everywhere:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Art still has truth, take refuge there.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And he was happy, if to know",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Causes of things, and far below",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His feet to see the lurid flow",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of terror, and insane distress,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And headlong fate, be happiness.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And Wordsworth!⁠—Ah, pale Ghosts, rejoice!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For never has such soothing voice",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Been to your shadowy world convey’d,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Since erst, at morn, some wandering shade",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Heard the clear song of Orpheus come",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Through Hades, and the mournful gloom.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wordsworth has gone from us⁠—and ye,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ah, may ye feel his voice as we!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He too upon a wintry clime",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Had fallen⁠—on this iron time",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of doubts, disputes, distractions, fears.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He found us when the age had bound",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Our souls in its benumbing round;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He spoke, and loos’d our heart in tears.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He laid us as we lay at birth",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On the cool flowery lap of earth;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Smiles broke from us and we had ease.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The hills were round us, and the breeze",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Went o’er the sun-lit fields again:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Our foreheads felt the wind and rain.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Our youth return’d: for there was shed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On spirits that had long been dead,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Spirits dried up and closely furl’d,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The freshness of the early world.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Ah, since dark days still bring to light",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Man’s prudence and man’s fiery might,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Time may restore us in his course",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Goethe’s sage mind and Byron’s force:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But where will Europe’s latter hour",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Again find Wordsworth’s healing power?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Others will teach us how to dare,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And against fear our breast to steel:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Others will strengthen us to bear⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But who, ah who, will make us feel?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The cloud of mortal destiny,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Others will front it fearlessly⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But who, like him, will put it by?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Keep fresh the grass upon his grave",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "O Rotha! with thy living wave.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sing him thy best! for few or none",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hears thy voice right, now he is gone.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}