{
 "id": "matthew-arnold/to-an-independent-preacher",
 "title": "To an Independent Preacher",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": "Who Preached That We Should Be “In Harmony with Nature”",
 "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": null,
 "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": 14,
  "n_stanzas": 1,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 50,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "“In harmony with Nature”? Restless fool,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who with such heat dost preach what were to thee,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When true, the last impossibility;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To be like Nature strong, like Nature cool:⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Know, man hath all which Nature hath, but more.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And in that more lie all his hopes of good.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nature is cruel; man is sick of blood:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nature is stubborn; man would fain adore:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nature is fickle; man hath need of rest:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nature forgives no debt, and fears no grave;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Man would be mild, and with safe conscience blest.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Man must begin, know this, where Nature ends;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nature and man can never be fast friends.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fool, if thou canst not pass her, rest her slave!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}