{
 "id": "matthew-arnold/the-voice",
 "title": "The Voice",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Matthew Arnold",
 "poet_slug": "matthew-arnold",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "The Strayed Reveller, and Other Poems",
 "book_slug": "the-strayed-reveller",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 7,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1849,
  "venue": "The Strayed Reveller, and Other Poems (1849)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/strayedrevellero00arno"
  ]
 },
 "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": 40,
  "n_stanzas": 1,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 55,
  "max_indent": 5
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "As the kindling glances,",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Queen-like and clear,",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Which the bright moon lances",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "From her tranquil sphere",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "At the sleepless waters",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Of a lonely mere,",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "On the wild whirling waves, mournfully, mournfully,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shiver and die.",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "As the tears of sorrow",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Mothers have shed⁠—",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Prayers that to-morrow",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Shall in vain be sped",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "When the flower they flow for",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Lies frozen and dead⁠—",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Fall on the throbbing brow, fall on the burning breast,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bringing no rest.",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "Like bright waves that fall",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "With a lifelike motion",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "On the lifeless margin of the sparkling Ocean:⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A wild rose climbing up a mould’ring wall⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A gush of sunbeams through a ruin’d hall⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Strains of glad music at a funeral:⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So sad, and with so wild a start",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "To this long sober’d heart,",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "So anxiously and painfully,",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "So drearily and doubtfully",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "And, oh, with such intolerable change",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of thought, such contrast strange,",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "O unforgotten Voice, thy whispers come,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like wanderers from the world’s extremity,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Unto their ancient home.",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "In vain, all, all in vain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They beat upon mine ear again,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Those melancholy tones so sweet and still;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Those lute-like tones which in long distant years",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Did steal into mine ears:",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Blew such a thrilling summons to my will",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet could not shake it:",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Drain’d all the life my full heart had to spill;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet could not break it.",
    "indent": 3
   }
  ]
 ]
}