{
 "id": "matthew-arnold/the-last-word",
 "title": "The Last Word",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "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": 16,
  "n_stanzas": 4,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 45,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Creep into thy narrow bed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Creep, and let no more be said!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Vain thy onset! all stands fast;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou thyself must break at last.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Let the long contention cease!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Geese are swans, and swans are geese.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Let them have it how they will!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou art tired; best be still!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "They out-talk’d thee, hiss’d thee, tore thee.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Better men fared thus before thee;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fired their ringing shot and pass’d,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hotly charged⁠—and broke at last.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Charge once more, then, and be dumb!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Let the victors, when they come,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When the forts of folly fall,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Find thy body by the wall!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}