{
 "id": "matthew-arnold/stanzas-in-memory-of-the-author-of-obermann",
 "title": "Stanzas in Memory of the Author of Obermann",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": "November, 1849",
 "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": null,
 "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": "Stanzas in Memory of the Author of Obermann14",
    "now": "Stanzas in Memory of the Author of Obermann",
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   },
   {
    "line": 5,
    "was": "Behind are the abandon’d baths15",
    "now": "Behind are the abandon’d baths",
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   {
    "line": 89,
    "was": "Yes, as the son of Thetis said,16",
    "now": "Yes, as the son of Thetis said,",
    "why": "A Standard Ebooks endnote marker (<a epub:type=\"noteref\">) carried into the text by extraction; not present on the printed page.",
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 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 184,
  "n_stanzas": 46,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 44,
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 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "In front the awful Alpine track",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Crawls up its rocky stair;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The autumn storm-winds drive the rack",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Close o’er it, in the air.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Behind are the abandon’d baths",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Mute in their meadows lone;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The leaves are on the valley-paths;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The mists are on the Rhone⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The white mists rolling like a sea.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I hear the torrents roar.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "—Yes, Obermann, all speaks of thee!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I feel thee near once more.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I turn thy leaves: I feel their breath",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Once more upon me roll;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That air of languor, cold, and death,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which brooded o’er thy soul.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Fly hence, poor Wretch, whoe’er thou art,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Condemn’d to cast about,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All shipwreck in thy own weak heart,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For comfort from without:",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "A fever in these pages burns",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Beneath the calm they feign;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A wounded human spirit turns",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Here, on its bed of pain.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Yes, though the virgin mountain air",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Fresh through these pages blows,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though to these leaves the glaciers spare",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The soul of their white snows,",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Though here a mountain-murmur swells",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Of many a dark-bough’d pine,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though, as you read, you hear the bells",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the high-pasturing kine⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Yet, through the hum of torrent lone,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And brooding mountain bee,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There sobs I know not what ground tone",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of human agony.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Is it for this, because the sound",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Is fraught too deep with pain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That, Obermann! the world around",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So little loves thy strain?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Some secrets may the poet tell,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For the world loves new ways.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To tell too deep ones is not well;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It knows not what he says.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Yet of the spirits who have reign’d",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "In this our troubled day,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I know but two, who have attain’d,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Save thee, to see their way.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "By England’s lakes, in grey old age,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "His quiet home one keeps;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And one, the strong much-toiling Sage,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In German Weimar sleeps.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But Wordsworth’s eyes avert their ken",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "From half of human fate;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And Goethe’s course few sons of men",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "May think to emulate.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "For he pursued a lonely road,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "His eyes on Nature’s plan;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Neither made man too much a God,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor God too much a man.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Strong was he, with a spirit free",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "From mists, and sane, and clear;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Clearer, how much! than ours: yet we",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Have a worse course to steer.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "For though his manhood bore the blast",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Europe’s stormiest time,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet in a tranquil world was pass’d",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His tenderer youthful prime.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But we, brought forth and rear’d in hours",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Of change, alarm, surprise⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What shelter to grow ripe is ours?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What leisure to grow wise?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Like children bathing on the shore,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Buried a wave beneath,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The second wave succeeds, before",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We have had time to breathe.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Too fast we live, too much are tried,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Too harass’d, to attain",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wordsworth’s sweet calm, or Goethe’s wide",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And luminous view to gain.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And then we turn, thou sadder Sage!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To thee: we feel thy spell.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The hopeless tangle of our age⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou too hast scann’d it well.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Immoveable thou sittest; still",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "As death; compos’d to bear.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy head is clear, thy feeling chill⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And icy thy despair.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Yes, as the son of Thetis said,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I hear thee saying now⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Greater by far than thou art dead:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Strive not: die also thou.⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Ah! two desires toss about",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The poet’s feverish blood.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "One drives him to the world without,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And one to solitude.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The glow, he cries, the thrill of life⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Where, where do these abound?⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not in the world, not in the strife",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of men, shall they be found.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He who hath watch’d, not shar’d, the strife,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Knows how the day hath gone;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He only lives with the world’s life",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who hath renounc’d his own.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "To thee we come, then. Clouds are roll’d",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Where thou, O Seer, art set;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy realm of thought is drear and cold⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The world is colder yet!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And thou hast pleasures too to share",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With those who come to thee:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Balms floating on thy mountain air,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And healing sights to see.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "How often, where the slopes are green",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "On Jaman, hast thou sate",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By some high chalet door, and seen",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The summer day grow late,",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And darkness steal o’er the wet grass",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With the pale crocus starr’d,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And reach that glimmering sheet of glass",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Beneath the piny sward,",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Lake Leman’s waters, far below:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And watch’d the rosy light",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fade from the distant peaks of snow:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And on the air of night",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Heard accents of the eternal tongue",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Through the pine branches play:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Listen’d, and felt thyself grow young;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Listen’d, and wept⁠—Away!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Away the dreams that but deceive!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And thou, sad Guide, adieu!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I go; Fate drives me: but I leave",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Half of my life with you.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "We, in some unknown Power’s employ,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Move on a rigorous line:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Can neither, when we will, enjoy;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor, when we will, resign.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I in the world must live:⁠—but thou,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou melancholy Shade!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wilt not, if thou canst see me now,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Condemn me, nor upbraid.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "For thou art gone away from earth,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And place with those dost claim,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Children of the Second Birth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whom the world could not tame;",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And with that small, transfigur’d Band,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Whom many a different way",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Conducted to their common land,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou learn’st to think as they.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Christian and pagan, king and slave,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Soldier and anchorite,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Distinctions we esteem so grave,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Are nothing in their sight.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "They do not ask, who pin’d unseen,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Who was on action hurl’d,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whose one bond is that all have been",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Unspotted by the world.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "There without anger thou wilt see",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Him who obeys thy spell",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No more, so he but rest, like thee,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Unsoil’d:⁠—and so, Farewell!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Farewell!⁠—Whether thou now liest near",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "That much-lov’d inland sea,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The ripples of whose blue waves cheer",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Vevey and Meillerie,",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And in that gracious region bland,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Where with clear-rustling wave",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The scented pines of Switzerland",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stand dark round thy green grave,",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Between the dusty vineyard walls",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Issuing on that green place",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The early peasant still recalls",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The pensive stranger’s face,",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And stoops to clear thy moss-grown date",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Ere he plods on again;⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or whether, by maligner Fate,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Among the swarms of men,",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Where between granite terraces",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The blue Seine rolls her wave,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Capital of Pleasure sees",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The hardly heard-of grave⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Farewell! Under the sky we part,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "In the stern Alpine dell.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O unstrung will! O broken heart!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A last, a last farewell!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}