{
 "id": "matthew-arnold/mycerinus",
 "title": "Mycerinus",
 "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": 1,
 "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": "Mycerinus1",
    "now": "Mycerinus",
    "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"
   }
  ]
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 127,
  "n_stanzas": 14,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 57,
  "max_indent": 1
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 "site_ready": true,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "“Not by the justice that my father spurn’d,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not for the thousands whom my father slew,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Altars unfed and temples overturn’d,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Cold hearts and thankless tongues, where thanks were due;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fell this late voice from lips that cannot lie,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stern sentence of the Powers of Destiny.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“I will unfold my sentence and my crime.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My crime, that, rapt in reverential awe,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I sate obedient, in the fiery prime",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of youth, self-govern’d, at the feet of Law;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ennobling this dull pomp, the life of kings,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By contemplation of diviner things.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“My father lov’d injustice, and liv’d long;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Crown’d with gray hairs he died, and full of sway.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I lov’d the good he scorn’d, and hated wrong:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Gods declare my recompense to-day.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I look’d for life more lasting, rule more high;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And when six years are measur’d, lo, I die!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Yet surely, O my people, did I deem",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Man’s justice from the all-just Gods was given:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A light that from some upper fount did beam,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Some better archetype, whose seat was heaven;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A light that, shining from the blest abodes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Did shadow somewhat of the life of Gods.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Mere phantoms of man’s self-tormenting heart,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which on the sweets that woo it dares not feed:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Vain dreams, that quench our pleasures, then depart,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When the dup’d soul, self-master’d, claims its meed:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When, on the strenuous just man, Heaven bestows,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Crown of his struggling life, an unjust close.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Seems it so light a thing then, austere Powers,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To spurn man’s common lure, life’s pleasant things?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Seems there no joy in dances crown’d with flowers,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Love, free to range, and regal banquetings?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bend ye on these, indeed, an unmov’d eye,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not Gods but ghosts, in frozen apathy?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Or is it that some Power, too wise, too strong,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Even for yourselves to conquer or beguile,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whirls earth, and heaven, and men, and gods along,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like the broad rushing of the insurged Nile?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the great powers we serve, themselves may be",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Slaves of a tyrannous Necessity?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Or in mid-heaven, perhaps, your golden cars,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where earthly voice climbs never, wing their flight,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And in wild hunt, through mazy tracts of stars,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sweep in the sounding stillness of the night?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or in deaf ease, on thrones of dazzling sheen,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Drinking deep draughts of joy, ye dwell serene?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Oh, wherefore cheat our youth, if thus it be,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of one short joy, one lust, one pleasant dream?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stringing vain words of powers we cannot see,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Blind divinations of a will supreme;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lost labour: when the circumambient gloom",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But hides, if Gods, Gods careless of our doom?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“The rest I give to joy. Even while I speak,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My sand runs short; and as yon star-shot ray,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hemm’d by two banks of cloud, peers pale and weak,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Now, as the barrier closes, dies away;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Even so do past and future intertwine,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Blotting this six years’ space, which yet is mine.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Six years⁠—six little years⁠—six drops of time⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet suns shall rise, and many moons shall wane,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And old men die, and young men pass their prime,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And languid Pleasure fade and flower again;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the dull Gods behold, ere these are flown,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Revels more deep, joy keener than their own.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Into the silence of the groves and woods",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I will go forth; though something would I say⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Something⁠—yet what I know not: for the Gods",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The doom they pass revoke not, nor delay;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And prayers, and gifts, and tears, are fruitless all,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the night waxes, and the shadows fall.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Ye men of Egypt, ye have heard your king.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I go, and I return not. But the will",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the great Gods is plain; and ye must bring",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ill deeds, ill passions, zealous to fulfil",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their pleasure, to their feet; and reap their praise,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The praise of Gods, rich boon! and length of days.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "—So spake he, half in anger, half in scorn;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And one loud cry of grief and of amaze",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Broke from his sorrowing people: so he spake;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And turning, left them there; and with brief pause,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Girt with a throng of revellers, bent his way",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To the cool region of the groves he lov’d.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There by the river banks he wander’d on,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From palm-grove on to palm-grove, happy trees,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their smooth tops shining sunwards, and beneath",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Burying their unsunn’d stems in grass and flowers:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where in one dream the feverish time of Youth",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Might fade in slumber, and the feet of Joy",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Might wander all day long and never tire:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Here came the king, holding high feast, at morn,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rose-crown’d; and ever, when the sun went down,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A hundred lamps beam’d in the tranquil gloom,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From tree to tree, all through the twinkling grove,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Revealing all the tumult of the feast,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Flush’d guests, and golden goblets, foam’d with wine;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While the deep-burnish’d foliage overhead",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Splinter’d the silver arrows of the moon.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It may be that sometimes his wondering soul",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "From the loud joyful laughter of his lips",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Might shrink half startled, like a guilty man",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who wrestles with his dream; as some pale Shape,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Gliding half hidden through the dusky stems,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Would thrust a hand before the lifted bowl,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whispering: “A little space, and thou art mine.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It may be on that joyless feast his eye",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dwelt with mere outward seeming; he, within,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Took measure of his soul, and knew its strength,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And by that silent knowledge, day by day,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Was calm’d, ennobled, comforted, sustain’d.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It may be; but not less his brow was smooth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And his clear laugh fled ringing through the gloom,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And his mirth quail’d not at the mild reproof",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sigh’d out by Winter’s sad tranquillity;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor, pall’d with its own fullness, ebb’d and died",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the rich languor of long summer-days;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor wither’d, when the palm-tree plumes, that roof’d",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With their mild dark his grassy banquet-hall,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bent to the cold winds of the showerless Spring;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No, nor grew dark when Autumn brought the clouds.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So six long years he revell’d, night and day;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And when the mirth wax’d loudest, with dull sound",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sometimes from the grove’s centre echoes came,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To tell his wondering people of their king;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the still night, across the steaming flats,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mix’d with the murmur of the moving Nile.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}