{
 "id": "matthew-arnold/saint-brandan",
 "title": "Saint Brandan",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Matthew Arnold",
 "poet_slug": "matthew-arnold",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "New Poems",
 "book_slug": "new-poems",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 2,
 "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": 76,
  "n_stanzas": 19,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 46,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Saint Brandan sails the northern main;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The brotherhoods of saints are glad.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He greets them once, he sails again;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So late!⁠—such storms!⁠—The Saint is mad!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He heard, across the howling seas,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Chime convent bells on wintry nights,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He saw on spray-swept Hebrides",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Twinkle the monastery-lights;",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But north, still north, Saint Brandan steer’d;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And now no bells, no convents more!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The hurtling Polar lights are near’d,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The sea without a human shore.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "At last⁠—(it was the Christmas night;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stars shone after a day of storm)⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He sees float past an iceberg white,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And on it⁠—Christ!⁠—a living form!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "That furtive mien, that scowling eye,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of hair that red and tufted fell⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It is⁠—Oh, where shall Brandan fly?⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The traitor Judas, out of hell!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Palsied with terror, Brandan sate;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The moon was bright, the iceberg near.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He hears a voice sigh humbly: “Wait!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By high permission I am here.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“One moment wait, thou holy man!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On earth my crime, my death, they knew;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My name is under all men’s ban;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ah, tell them of my respite too!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Tell them, one blessed Christmas night⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(It was the first after I came,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Breathing self-murder, frenzy, spite,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To rue my guilt in endless flame)⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“I felt, as I in torment lay",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Mid the souls plagued by heavenly power,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "An angel touch mine arm, and say:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Go hence and cool thyself an hour!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“ ‘Ah, whence this mercy, Lord?’ I said.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Leper recollect, said he,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who ask’d the passers-by for aid,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In Joppa, and thy charity.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Then I remember’d how I went,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In Joppa, through the public street,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "One morn, when the sirocco spent",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Its storms of dust, with burning heat;",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“And in the street a leper sate,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shivering with fever, naked, old;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sand raked his sores from heel to pate,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The hot wind fever’d him five-fold.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“He gazed upon me as I pass’d,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And murmur’d: Help me, or I die!⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To the poor wretch my cloak I cast,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Saw him look eased, and hurried by.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Oh, Brandan, think what grace divine,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What blessing must true goodness shower,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If semblance of it faint, like mine,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hath such inestimable power!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Well-fed, well-clothed, well-friended, I",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Did that chance act of good, that one!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then went my way to kill and lie⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Forgot my good as soon as done.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“That germ of kindness, in the womb",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of mercy caught, did not expire;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Outlives my guilt, outlives my doom,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And friends me in the pit of fire.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Once every year, when carols wake,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On earth, the Christmas-night’s repose,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Arising from the sinners’ lake,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I journey to these healing snows.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“I stanch with ice my burning breast,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With silence balm my whirling brain.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O Brandan! to this hour of rest",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That Joppan leper’s ease was pain.”⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Tears started to Saint Brandan’s eyes;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He bow’d his head; he breathed a prayer.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When he look’d up⁠—tenantless lies",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The iceberg in the frosty air!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}