{
 "id": "matthew-arnold/the-neckan",
 "title": "The Neckan",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Matthew Arnold",
 "poet_slug": "matthew-arnold",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Poems",
 "book_slug": "poems",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": null,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1853,
  "venue": "Poems (1853)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/poems04unkngoog"
  ]
 },
 "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": 60,
  "n_stanzas": 15,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 44,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "In summer, on the headlands,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Baltic Sea along,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Sits Neckan with his harp of gold,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And sings his plaintive song.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Green rolls beneath the headlands,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Green rolls the Baltic Sea.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And there, below the Neckan’s feet,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His wife and children be.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He sings not of the ocean,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Its shells and roses pale.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Of earth, of earth the Neckan sings;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He hath no other tale.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He sits upon the headlands,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And sings a mournful stave",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Of all he saw and felt on earth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Far from the green sea wave.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Sings how, a knight, he wander’d",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By castle, field, and town.⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But earthly knights have harder hearts",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than the Sea Children own.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Sings of his earthly bridal⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Priest, knights, and ladies gay.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“And who art thou,” the priest began,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Sir Knight, who wedd’st to-day?”⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“I am no knight,” he answer’d;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“From the sea waves I come.”⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The knights drew sword, the ladies scream’d,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The surplic’d priest stood dumb.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He sings how from the chapel",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He vanish’d with his bride,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And bore her down to the sea halls,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Beneath the salt sea tide.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He sings how she sits weeping",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Mid shells that round her lie.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“False Neckan shares my bed,” she weeps;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“No Christian mate have I.”⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He sings how through the billows",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He rose to earth again,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And sought a priest to sign the cross,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That Neckan Heaven might gain.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He sings how, on an evening,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Beneath the birch trees cool,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "He sate and play’d his harp of gold,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Beside the river pool.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Beside the pool sate Neckan⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Tears fill’d his cold blue eye.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "On his white mule, across the bridge,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A cassock’d priest rode by.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Why sitt’st thou there, O Neckan,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And play’st thy harp of gold?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sooner shall this my staff bear leaves,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than thou shalt Heaven behold.”⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The cassock’d priest rode onwards,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And vanished with his mule.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But Neckan in the twilight grey",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wept by the river pool.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "In summer, on the headlands,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Baltic Sea along,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Sits Neckan with his harp of gold,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And sings this plaintive song.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}