{
 "id": "oscar-wilde/ravenna",
 "title": "Ravenna",
 "poet": "Oscar Wilde",
 "poet_slug": "oscar-wilde",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Ravenna",
 "book_slug": "ravenna",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 1,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1878,
  "venue": "Ravenna (1878)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/ravennarecitedin00wildrich",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1057"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
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  "repo": "standardebooks/oscar-wilde_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
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   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1338",
   "https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Lotus_Leaves",
   "https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Wasted_Days_(from_a_Picture_Painted_by_Miss_V._T.)",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/102953450",
   "https://archive.org/details/ravennarecitedin00wildrich",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/010824214",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/006061074",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100217578",
   "https://archive.org/details/cu31924013571082",
   "https://newspapers.bc.edu/?a=d&d=pilot18770721-01.2.24"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-12"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 332,
  "n_stanzas": 27,
  "n_parts": 7,
  "longest_line_chars": 53,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [
  {
   "ordinal": "I",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    0,
    2
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "II",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    2,
    4
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "III",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    4,
    8
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "IV",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    8,
    12
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "V",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    12,
    14
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "VI",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    14,
    23
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "VII",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    23,
    27
   ]
  }
 ],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "A year ago I breathed the Italian air⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And yet, methinks this northern Spring is fair⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "These fields made golden with the flower of March,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The throstle singing on the feathered larch,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The cawing rooks, the wood-doves fluttering by,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The little clouds that race across the sky;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And fair the violet’s gentle drooping head,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The primrose, pale for love uncomforted,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The rose that burgeons on the climbing briar,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The crocus-bed, (that seems a moon of fire",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Round-girdled with a purple marriage-ring);",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And all the flowers of our English Spring,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fond snowdrops, and the bright-starred daffodil.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Up starts the lark beside the murmuring mill,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And breaks the gossamer-threads of early dew;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And down the river, like a flame of blue,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Keen as an arrow flies the water-king,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While the brown linnets in the greenwood sing.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A year ago!⁠—it seems a little time",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Since last I saw that lordly southern clime,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where flower and fruit to purple radiance blow,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And like bright lamps the fabled apples glow.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Full Spring it was⁠—and by rich flowering vines,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dark olive-groves and noble forest-pines,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I rode at will; the moist glad air was sweet,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The white road rang beneath my horse’s feet,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And musing on Ravenna’s ancient name,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I watched the day till, marked with wounds of flame,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The turquoise sky to burnished gold was turned.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O how my heart with boyish passion burned,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "When far away across the sedge and mere",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I saw that Holy City rising clear,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Crowned with her crown of towers!⁠—On and on",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I galloped, racing with the setting sun,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And ere the crimson after-glow was passed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I stood within Ravenna’s walls at last!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "How strangely still! no sound of life or joy",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Startles the air; no laughing shepherd-boy",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pipes on his reed, nor ever through the day",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Comes the glad sound of children at their play:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O sad, and sweet, and silent! surely here",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A man might dwell apart from troublous fear,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Watching the tide of seasons as they flow",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From amorous Spring to Winter’s rain and snow,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And have no thought of sorrow;⁠—here, indeed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Are Lethe’s waters, and that fatal weed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which makes a man forget his fatherland.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Ay! amid lotus-meadows dost thou stand,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Like Proserpine, with poppy-laden head,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Guarding the holy ashes of the dead.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For though thy brood of warrior sons hath ceased,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy noble dead are with thee!⁠—they at least",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Are faithful to thine honour:⁠—guard them well,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O childless city! for a mighty spell,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To wake men’s hearts to dreams of things sublime,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Are the lone tombs where rest the Great of Time.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Yon lonely pillar, rising on the plain,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Marks where the bravest knight of France was slain⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Prince of chivalry, the Lord of war,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Gaston de Foix: for some untimely star",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Led him against thy city, and he fell,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As falls some forest-lion fighting well.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Taken from life while life and love were new,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He lies beneath God’s seamless veil of blue;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Tall lance-like reeds wave sadly o’er his head,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And oleanders bloom to deeper red,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where his bright youth flowed crimson on the ground.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Look farther north unto that broken mound⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "There, prisoned now within a lordly tomb",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Raised by a daughter’s hand, in lonely gloom,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Huge-limbed Theodoric, the Gothic king,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sleeps after all his weary conquering.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Time hath not spared his ruin⁠—wind and rain",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Have broken down his stronghold; and again",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We see that Death is mighty lord of all,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And king and clown to ashen dust must fall.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Mighty indeed their glory! yet to me",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Barbaric king, or knight of chivalry,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or the great queen herself, were poor and vain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Beside the grave where Dante rests from pain.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His gilded shrine lies open to the air;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And cunning sculptor’s hands have carven there",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The calm white brow, as calm as earliest morn,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The eyes that flashed with passionate love and scorn,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The lips that sang of Heaven and of Hell,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The almond-face which Giotto drew so well,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The weary face of Dante;⁠—to this day,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Here in his place of resting, far away",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From Arno’s yellow waters, rushing down",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Through the wide bridges of that fairy town,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where the tall tower of Giotto seems to rise",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A marble lily under sapphire skies!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Alas! my Dante! thou hast known the pain",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of meaner lives⁠—the exile’s galling chain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "How steep the stairs within kings’ houses are,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And all the petty miseries which mar",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Man’s nobler nature with the sense of wrong.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet this dull world is grateful for thy song;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Our nations do thee homage⁠—even she,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That cruel queen of vine-clad Tuscany,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who bound with crown of thorns thy living brow,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hath decked thine empty tomb with laurels now,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And begs in vain the ashes of her son.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O mightiest exile! all thy grief is done:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy soul walks now beside thy Beatrice;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ravenna guards thine ashes: sleep in peace.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "How lone this palace is; how grey the walls!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "No minstrel now wakes echoes in these halls.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The broken chain lies rusting on the door,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And noisome weeds have split the marble floor:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Here lurks the snake, and here the lizards run",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By the stone lions blinking in the sun.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Byron dwelt here in love and revelry",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For two long years⁠—a second Anthony,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who of the world another Actium made!⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet suffered not his royal soul to fade,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or lyre to break, or lance to grow less keen,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Neath any wiles of an Egyptian queen.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For from the East there came a mighty cry,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And Greece stood up to fight for Liberty,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And called him from Ravenna: never knight",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rode forth more nobly to wild scenes of fight!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "None fell more bravely on ensanguined field,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Borne like a Spartan back upon his shield!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O Hellas! Hellas! in thine hour of pride,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy day of might, remember him who died",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To wrest from off thy limbs the trammelling chain:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O Salamis! O lone Plataean plain!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O tossing waves of wild Euboean sea!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O wind-swept heights of lone Thermopylae!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He loved you well⁠—ay, not alone in word,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who freely gave to thee his lyre and sword,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like Aeschylos at well-fought Marathon:",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And England, too, shall glory in her son,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Her warrior-poet, first in song and fight.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No longer now shall Slander’s venomed spite",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Crawl like a snake across his perfect name,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or mar the lordly scutcheon of his fame.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "For as the olive-garland of the race,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Which lights with joy each eager runner’s face,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As the red cross which saveth men in war,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As a flame-bearded beacon seen from far",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By mariners upon a storm-tossed sea⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Such was his love for Greece and Liberty!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Byron, thy crowns are ever fresh and green:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Red leaves of rose from Sapphic Mitylene",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shall bind thy brows; the myrtle blooms for thee,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In hidden glades by lonely Castaly;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The laurels wait thy coming: all are thine,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And round thy head one perfect wreath will twine.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The pine-tops rocked before the evening breeze",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With the hoarse murmur of the wintry seas,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the tall stems were streaked with amber bright;⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I wandered through the wood in wild delight,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Some startled bird, with fluttering wings and fleet,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Made snow of all the blossoms; at my feet,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like silver crowns, the pale narcissi lay,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And small birds sang on every twining spray.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O waving trees, O forest liberty!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Within your haunts at least a man is free,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And half forgets the weary world of strife:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The blood flows hotter, and a sense of life",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wakes i’ the quickening veins, while once again",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The woods are filled with gods we fancied slain.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Long time I watched, and surely hoped to see",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Some goat-foot Pan make merry minstrelsy",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Amid the reeds! some startled Dryad-maid",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In girlish flight! or lurking in the glade,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The soft brown limbs, the wanton treacherous face",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of woodland god! Queen Dian in the chase,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "White-limbed and terrible, with look of pride,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And leash of boar-hounds leaping at her side!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or Hylas mirrored in the perfect stream.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O idle heart! O fond Hellenic dream!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Ere long, with melancholy rise and swell,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The evening chimes, the convent’s vesper bell,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Struck on mine ears amid the amorous flowers.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Alas! alas! these sweet and honied hours",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Had whelmed my heart like some encroaching sea,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And drowned all thoughts of black Gethsemane.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O lone Ravenna! many a tale is told",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Of thy great glories in the days of old:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Two thousand years have passed since thou didst see",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Caesar ride forth to royal victory.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mighty thy name when Rome’s lean eagles flew",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From Britain’s isles to far Euphrates blue;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And of the peoples thou wast noble queen,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till in thy streets the Goth and Hun were seen.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Discrowned by man, deserted by the sea,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou sleepest, rocked in lonely misery!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No longer now upon thy swelling tide,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pine-forest-like, thy myriad galleys ride!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For where the brass-beaked ships were wont to float,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The weary shepherd pipes his mournful note;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the white sheep are free to come and go",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where Adria’s purple waters used to flow.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O fair! O sad! O Queen uncomforted!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "In ruined loveliness thou liest dead,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Alone of all thy sisters; for at last",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Italia’s royal warrior hath passed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rome’s lordliest entrance, and hath worn his crown",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the high temples of the Eternal Town!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Palatine hath welcomed back her king,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And with his name the seven mountains ring!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And Naples hath outlived her dream of pain,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And mocks her tyrant! Venice lives again,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "New risen from the waters! and the cry",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Light and Truth, of Love and Liberty,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is heard in lordly Genoa, and where",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The marble spires of Milan wound the air,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rings from the Alps to the Sicilian shore,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And Dante’s dream is now a dream no more.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But thou, Ravenna, better loved than all,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy ruined palaces are but a pall",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That hides thy fallen greatness! and thy name",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Burns like a grey and flickering candle-flame",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Beneath the noonday splendour of the sun",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of new Italia! for the night is done,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The night of dark oppression, and the day",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hath dawned in passionate splendour: far away",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Austrian hounds are hunted from the land,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Beyond those ice-crowned citadels which stand",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Girdling the plain of royal Lombardy,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From the far West unto the Eastern sea.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I know, indeed, that sons of thine have died",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "In Lissa’s waters, by the mountain-side",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Aspromonte, on Novara’s plain⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor have thy children died for thee in vain:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And yet, methinks, thou hast not drunk this wine",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From grapes new-crushed of Liberty divine,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou hast not followed that immortal Star",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which leads the people forth to deeds of war.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Weary of life, thou liest in silent sleep,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As one who marks the lengthening shadows creep,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Careless of all the hurrying hours that run,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mourning some day of glory, for the sun",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Freedom hath not shown to thee his face,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And thou hast caught no flambeau in the race.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Yet wake not from thy slumbers⁠—rest thee well,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Amidst thy fields of amber asphodel,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy lily-sprinkled meadows⁠—rest thee there,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To mock all human greatness: who would dare",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To vent the paltry sorrows of his life",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Before thy ruins, or to praise the strife",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of kings’ ambition, and the barren pride",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of warring nations! wert not thou the Bride",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the wild Lord of Adria’s stormy sea!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Queen of double Empires! and to thee",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Were not the nations given as thy prey!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And now⁠—thy gates lie open night and day,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The grass grows green on every tower and hall,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The ghastly fig hath cleft thy bastioned wall;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And where thy mailèd warriors stood at rest",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The midnight owl hath made her secret nest.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O fallen! fallen! from thy high estate,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O city trammelled in the toils of Fate,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Doth nought remain of all thy glorious days,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But a dull shield, a crown of withered bays!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Yet who beneath this night of wars and fears,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "From tranquil tower can watch the coming years;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who can foretell what joys the day shall bring,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or why before the dawn the linnets sing?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou, even thou, mayst wake, as wakes the rose",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To crimson splendour from its grave of snows;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As the rich corn-fields rise to red and gold",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From these brown lands, now stiff with Winter’s cold;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As from the storm-rack comes a perfect star!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O much-loved city! I have wandered far",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "From the wave-circled islands of my home;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Have seen the gloomy mystery of the Dome",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rise slowly from the drear Campagna’s way,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Clothed in the royal purple of the day:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I from the city of the violet crown",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Have watched the sun by Corinth’s hill go down,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And marked the “myriad laughter” of the sea",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From starlit hills of flower-starred Arcady;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet back to thee returns my perfect love,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As to its forest-nest the evening dove.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O poet’s city! one who scarce has seen",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Some twenty summers cast their doublets green,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For Autumn’s livery, would seek in vain",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To wake his lyre to sing a louder strain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or tell thy days of glory;⁠—poor indeed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is the low murmur of the shepherd’s reed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where the loud clarion’s blast should shake the sky,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And flame across the heavens! and to try",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Such lofty themes were folly: yet I know",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That never felt my heart a nobler glow",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than when I woke the silence of thy street",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With clamorous trampling of my horse’s feet,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And saw the city which now I try to sing,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "After long days of weary travelling.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Adieu, Ravenna! but a year ago,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I stood and watched the crimson sunset glow",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From the lone chapel on thy marshy plain:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The sky was as a shield that caught the stain",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of blood and battle from the dying sun,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And in the west the circling clouds had spun",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A royal robe, which some great God might wear,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While into ocean-seas of purple air",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sank the gold galley of the Lord of Light.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Yet here the gentle stillness of the night",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Brings back the swelling tide of memory,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And wakes again my passionate love for thee:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Now is the Spring of Love, yet soon will come",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On meadow and tree the Summer’s lordly bloom;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And soon the grass with brighter flowers will blow,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And send up lilies for some boy to mow.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then before long the Summer’s conqueror,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rich Autumn-time, the season’s usurer,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Will lend his hoarded gold to all the trees,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And see it scattered by the spendthrift breeze;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And after that the Winter cold and drear.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So runs the perfect cycle of the year.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And so from youth to manhood do we go,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And fall to weary days and locks of snow.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Love only knows no winter; never dies:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor cares for frowning storms or leaden skies.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And mine for thee shall never pass away,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though my weak lips may falter in my lay.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Adieu! Adieu! yon silent evening star,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The night’s ambassador, doth gleam afar,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And bid the shepherd bring his flocks to fold.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Perchance before our inland seas of gold",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Are garnered by the reapers into sheaves,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Perchance before I see the Autumn leaves,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I may behold thy city; and lay down",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Low at thy feet the poet’s laurel crown.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Adieu! Adieu! yon silver lamp, the moon,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Which turns our midnight into perfect noon,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Doth surely light thy towers, guarding well",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where Dante sleeps, where Byron loved to dwell.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}