{
 "id": "matthew-arnold/rugby-chapel",
 "title": "Rugby Chapel",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": "November, 1857",
 "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"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 208,
  "n_stanzas": 13,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 40,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Coldly, sadly descends",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The autumn evening. The Field",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Strewn with its dank yellow drifts",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of wither’d leaves, and the elms,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fade into dimness apace,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Silent;⁠—hardly a shout",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From a few boys late at their play!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The lights come out in the street,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the school-room windows; but cold,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Solemn, unlighted, austere,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Through the gathering darkness, arise",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Chapel walls, in whose bound",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou, my father! art laid.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "There thou dost lie, in the gloom",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the autumn evening. But ah!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That word, gloom, to my mind",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Brings thee back in the light",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of thy radiant vigour again!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the gloom of November we pass’d",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Days not dark at thy side;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Seasons impair’d not the ray",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of thine even cheerfulness clear.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Such thou wast; and I stand",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the autumn evening, and think",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of bygone autumns with thee.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Fifteen years have gone round",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Since thou arosest to tread,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the summer-morning, the road",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of death, at a call unforeseen,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sudden. For fifteen years,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We who till then in thy shade",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rested as under the boughs",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of a mighty oak, have endured",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sunshine and rain as we might,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bare, unshaded, alone,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lacking the shelter of thee.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O strong soul, by what shore",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Tarriest thou now? For that force,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Surely, has not been left vain!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Somewhere, surely, afar,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the sounding labour-house vast",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of being, is practised that strength,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Zealous, beneficent, firm!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Yes, in some far-shining sphere,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Conscious or not of the past,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Still thou performest the word",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the Spirit in whom thou dost live,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Prompt, unwearied, as here!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Still thou upraisest with zeal",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The humble good from the ground,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sternly repressest the bad.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Still, like a trumpet, dost rouse",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Those who with half-open eyes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Tread the border-land dim",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Twixt vice and virtue; reviv’st,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Succourest;⁠—this was thy work,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This was thy life upon earth.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "What is the course of the life",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of mortal men on the earth?⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Most men eddy about",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Here and there⁠—eat and drink,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Chatter and love and hate,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Gather and squander, are raised",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Aloft, are hurl’d in the dust,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Striving blindly, achieving",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nothing; and, then they die⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Perish;⁠—and no one asks",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who or what they have been,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "More than he asks what waves",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the moonlit solitudes mild",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the midmost Ocean, have swell’d,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Foam’d for a moment, and gone.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And there are some, whom a thirst",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ardent, unquenchable, fires,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not with the crowd to be spent,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not without aim to go round",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In an eddy of purposeless dust,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Effort unmeaning and vain.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ah yes, some of us strive",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not without action to die",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fruitless, but something to snatch",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From dull oblivion, nor all",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Glut the devouring grave!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We, we have chosen our path⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Path to a clear-purposed goal,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Path of advance! but it leads",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A long, steep journey, through sunk",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Gorges, o’er mountains in snow!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Cheerful, with friends, we set forth;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then, on the height, comes the storm!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thunder crashes from rock",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To rock, the cataracts reply;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lightnings dazzle our eyes;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Roaring torrents have breach’d",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The track, the stream-bed descends",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the place where the wayfarer once",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Planted his footstep⁠—the spray",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Boils o’er its borders; aloft",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The unseen snow-beds dislodge",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their hanging ruin;⁠—alas,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Havoc is made in our train!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Friends who set forth at our side",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Falter, are lost in the storm!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We, we only are left!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With frowning foreheads, with lips",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sternly compress’d, we strain on,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On⁠—and at nightfall, at lastl",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Come to the end of our way,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To the lonely inn ’mid the rocks;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where the gaunt and taciturn Host",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stands on the threshold, the wind",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shaking his thin white hairs⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Holds his lantern to scan",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Our storm-beat figures, and asks:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whom in our party we bring?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whom we have left in the snow?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Sadly we answer: We bring",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Only ourselves; we lost",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sight of the rest in the storm.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hardly ourselves we fought through,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stripp’d, without friends, as we are.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Friends, companions, and train",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The avalanche swept from our side.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But thou would’st not alone",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Be saved, my father! alone",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Conquer and come to thy goal,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Leaving the rest in the wild.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We were weary, and we",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fearful, and we, in our march",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fain to drop down and to die.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Still thou turnedst, and still",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Beckonedst the trembler, and still",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Gavest the weary thy hand!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If, in the paths of the world,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stones might have wounded thy feet,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Toil or dejection have tried",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy spirit, of that we saw",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nothing! to us thou wert still",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Cheerful, and helpful, and firm.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Therefore to thee it was given",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Many to save with thyself;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And, at the end of thy day,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O faithful shepherd! to come,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bringing thy sheep in thy hand.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And through thee I believe",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the noble and great who are gone;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pure souls honour’d and blest",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By former ages, who else⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Such, so soulless, so poor,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is the race of men whom I see⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Seem’d but a dream of the heart,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Seem’d but a cry of desire.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yes! I believe that there lived",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Others like thee in the past,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not like the men of the crowd",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who all round me to-day",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bluster or cringe, and make life",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hideous, and arid, and vile;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But souls temper’d with fire,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fervent, heroic, and good,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Helpers and friends of mankind.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Servants of God!⁠—or sons",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shall I not call you? because",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not as servants ye knew",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Your Father’s innermost mind,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His, who unwillingly sees",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "One of his little ones lost⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yours is the praise, if mankind",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hath not as yet in its march",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fainted, and fallen, and died!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "See! In the rocks of the world",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Marches the host of mankind,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A feeble, wavering line.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where are they tending?⁠—A God",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Marshall’d them, gave them their goal.⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ah, but the way is so long!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Years they have been in the wild!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sore thirst plagues them; the rocks,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rising all round, overawe.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Factions divide them; their host",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Threatens to break, to dissolve.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ah, keep, keep them combined!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Else, of the myriads who fill",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That army, not one shall arrive!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sole they shall stray; in the rocks",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Labour for ever in vain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Die one by one in the waste.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then, in such hour of need",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of your fainting, dispirited race,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ye, like angels, appear,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Radiant with ardour divine.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Beacons of hope, ye appear!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Languor is not in your heart,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Weakness is not in your word,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Weariness not on your brow.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ye alight in our van; at your voice,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Panic, despair, flee away.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ye move through the ranks, recall",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The stragglers, refresh the outworn,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Praise, re-inspire the brave.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Order, courage, return.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Eyes rekindling, and prayers,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Follow your steps as ye go.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ye fill up the gaps in our files,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Strengthen the wavering line,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stablish, continue our march,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On, to the bound of the waste,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On, to the City of God.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}