{
 "id": "oscar-wilde/the-burden-of-itys",
 "title": "The Burden of Itys",
 "poet": "Oscar Wilde",
 "poet_slug": "oscar-wilde",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Poems",
 "book_slug": "poems",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 5,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1881,
  "venue": "Poems (1881)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1057"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
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  "repo": "standardebooks/oscar-wilde_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
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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",
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  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-12"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 348,
  "n_stanzas": 58,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 69,
  "max_indent": 1
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "This English Thames is holier far than Rome,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Those harebells like a sudden flush of sea",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Breaking across the woodland, with the foam",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of meadow-sweet and white anemone",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To fleck their blue waves⁠—God is likelier there",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than hidden in that crystal-hearted star the pale monks bear!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Those violet-gleaming butterflies that take",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yon creamy lily for their pavilion",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Are monsignores, and where the rushes shake",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A lazy pike lies basking in the sun,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "His eyes half shut⁠—he is some mitred old",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bishop in partibus! look at those gaudy scales all green and gold.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The wind the restless prisoner of the trees",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Does well for Palaestrina, one would say",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The mighty master’s hands were on the keys",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the Maria organ, which they play",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "When early on some sapphire Easter morn",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In a high litter red as blood or sin the Pope is borne",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "From his dark House out to the Balcony",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Above the bronze gates and the crowded square,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Whose very fountains seem for ecstasy",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To toss their silver lances in the air,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And stretching out weak hands to East and West",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In vain sends peace to peaceless lands, to restless nations rest.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Is not yon lingering orange after-glow",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That stays to vex the moon more fair than all",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Rome’s lordliest pageants! strange, a year ago",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I knelt before some crimson Cardinal",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Who bare the Host across the Esquiline,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And now⁠—those common poppies in the wheat seem twice as fine.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The blue-green beanfields yonder, tremulous",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With the last shower, sweeter perfume bring",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Through this cool evening than the odorous",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Flame-jewelled censers the young deacons swing,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "When the grey priest unlocks the curtained shrine,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And makes God’s body from the common fruit of corn and vine.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Poor Fra Giovanni bawling at the mass",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Were out of tune now, for a small brown bird",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Sings overhead, and through the long cool grass",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I see that throbbing throat which once I heard",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "On starlit hills of flower-starred Arcady,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Once where the white and crescent sand of Salamis meets sea.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Sweet is the swallow twittering on the eaves",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "At daybreak, when the mower whets his scythe,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And stock-doves murmur, and the milkmaid leaves",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her little lonely bed, and carols blithe",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To see the heavy-lowing cattle wait",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stretching their huge and dripping mouths across the farmyard gate.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And sweet the hops upon the Kentish leas,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And sweet the wind that lifts the new-mown hay,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And sweet the fretful swarms of grumbling bees",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That round and round the linden blossoms play;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And sweet the heifer breathing in the stall,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the green bursting figs that hang upon the red-brick wall,",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And sweet to hear the cuckoo mock the spring",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While the last violet loiters by the well,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And sweet to hear the shepherd Daphnis sing",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The song of Linus through a sunny dell",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Of warm Arcadia where the corn is gold",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the slight lithe-limbed reapers dance about the wattled fold.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And sweet with young Lycoris to recline",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In some Illyrian valley far away,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Where canopied on herbs amaracine",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We too might waste the summer-trancèd day",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Matching our reeds in sportive rivalry,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While far beneath us frets the troubled purple of the sea.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But sweeter far if silver-sandalled foot",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of some long-hidden God should ever tread",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The Nuneham meadows, if with reeded flute",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pressed to his lips some Faun might raise his head",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "By the green water-flags, ah! sweet indeed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To see the heavenly herdsman call his white-fleeced flock to feed.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then sing to me thou tuneful chorister,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though what thou sing’st be thine own requiem!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Tell me thy tale thou hapless chronicler",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of thine own tragedies! do not contemn",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "These unfamiliar haunts, this English field,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For many a lovely coronal our northern isle can yield",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Which Grecian meadows know not, many a rose",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which all day long in vales Aeolian",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A lad might seek in vain for over-grows",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Our hedges like a wanton courtesan",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Unthrifty of its beauty; lilies too",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ilissos never mirrored star our streams, and cockles blue",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Dot the green wheat which, though they are the signs",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For swallows going south, would never spread",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Their azure tents between the Attic vines;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Even that little weed of ragged red,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Which bids the robin pipe, in Arcady",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Would be a trespasser, and many an unsung elegy",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Sleeps in the reeds that fringe our winding Thames",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which to awake were sweeter ravishment",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Than ever Syrinx wept for, diadems",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of brown bee-studded orchids which were meant",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For Cytheraea’s brows are hidden here",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Unknown to Cytheraea, and by yonder pasturing steer",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "There is a tiny yellow daffodil,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The butterfly can see it from afar,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Although one summer evening’s dew could fill",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Its little cup twice over ere the star",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Had called the lazy shepherd to his fold",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And be no prodigal; each leaf is flecked with spotted gold",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "As if Jove’s gorgeous leman Danae",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hot from his gilded arms had stooped to kiss",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The trembling petals, or young Mercury",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Low-flying to the dusky ford of Dis",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Had with one feather of his pinions",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Just brushed them! the slight stem which bears the burden of its suns",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Is hardly thicker than the gossamer,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or poor Arachne’s silver tapestry⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Men say it bloomed upon the sepulchre",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of One I sometime worshipped, but to me",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "It seems to bring diviner memories",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of faun-loved Heliconian glades and blue nymph-haunted seas,",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Of an untrodden vale at Tempe where",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On the clear river’s marge Narcissus lies,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The tangle of the forest in his hair,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The silence of the woodland in his eyes,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Wooing that drifting imagery which is",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No sooner kissed than broken; memories of Salmacis",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Who is not boy nor girl and yet is both,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fed by two fires and unsatisfied",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Through their excess, each passion being loth",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For love’s own sake to leave the other’s side",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet killing love by staying; memories",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Oreads peeping through the leaves of silent moonlit trees,",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Of lonely Ariadne on the wharf",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "At Naxos, when she saw the treacherous crew",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Far out at sea, and waved her crimson scarf",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And called false Theseus back again nor knew",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "That Dionysos on an amber pard",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Was close behind her; memories of what Maeonia’s bard",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "With sightless eyes beheld, the wall of Troy,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Queen Helen lying in the ivory room,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And at her side an amorous red-lipped boy",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Trimming with dainty hand his helmet’s plume,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And far away the moil, the shout, the groan,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As Hector shielded off the spear and Ajax hurled the stone;",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Of wingèd Perseus with his flawless sword",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Cleaving the snaky tresses of the witch,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And all those tales imperishably stored",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In little Grecian urns, freightage more rich",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Than any gaudy galleon of Spain",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bare from the Indies ever! these at least bring back again,",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "For well I know they are not dead at all,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The ancient Gods of Grecian poesy,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "They are asleep, and when they hear thee call",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Will wake and think ’tis very Thessaly,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "This Thames the Daulian waters, this cool glade",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The yellow-irised mead where once young Itys laughed and played.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "If it was thou dear jasmine-cradled bird",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who from the leafy stillness of thy throne",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Sang to the wondrous boy, until he heard",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The horn of Atalanta faintly blown",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Across the Cumnor hills, and wandering",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Through Bagley wood at evening found the Attic poets’ spring⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Ah! tiny sober-suited advocate",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That pleadest for the moon against the day!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "If thou didst make the shepherd seek his mate",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On that sweet questing, when Proserpina",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Forgot it was not Sicily and leant",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Across the mossy Sandford stile in ravished wonderment⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Light-winged and bright-eyed miracle of the wood!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If ever thou didst soothe with melody",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "One of that little clan, that brotherhood",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which loved the morning-star of Tuscany",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "More than the perfect sun of Raphael",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And is immortal, sing to me! for I too love thee well.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Sing on! sing on! let the dull world grow young,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Let elemental things take form again,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And the old shapes of Beauty walk among",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The simple garths and open crofts, as when",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The son of Leto bare the willow rod,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the soft sheep and shaggy goats followed the boyish God.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Sing on! sing on! and Bacchus will be here",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Astride upon his gorgeous Indian throne,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And over whimpering tigers shake the spear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With yellow ivy crowned and gummy cone,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "While at his side the wanton Bassarid",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Will throw the lion by the mane and catch the mountain kid!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Sing on! and I will wear the leopard skin,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And steal the moonèd wings of Ashtaroth,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Upon whose icy chariot we could win",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Cithaeron in an hour ere the froth",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Has over-brimmed the wine-vat or the Faun",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ceased from the treading! ay, before the flickering lamp of dawn",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Has scared the hooting owlet to its nest,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And warned the bat to close its filmy vans,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Some Maenad girl with vine-leaves on her breast",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Will filch their beech-nuts from the sleeping Pans",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "So softly that the little nested thrush",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Will never wake, and then with shrilly laugh and leap will rush",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Down the green valley where the fallen dew",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lies thick beneath the elm and count her store,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Till the brown Satyrs in a jolly crew",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Trample the loosestrife down along the shore,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And where their hornèd master sits in state",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bring strawberries and bloomy plums upon a wicker crate!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Sing on! and soon with passion-wearied face",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Through the cool leaves Apollo’s lad will come,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The Tyrian prince his bristled boar will chase",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Adown the chestnut-copses all a-bloom,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And ivory-limbed, grey-eyed, with look of pride,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "After yon velvet-coated deer the virgin maid will ride.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Sing on! and I the dying boy will see",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stain with his purple blood the waxen bell",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "That overweighs the jacinth, and to me",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The wretched Cyprian her woe will tell,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And I will kiss her mouth and streaming eyes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And lead her to the myrtle-hidden grove where Adon lies!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Cry out aloud on Itys! memory",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That foster-brother of remorse and pain",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Drops poison in mine ear⁠—O to be free,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To burn one’s old ships! and to launch again",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Into the white-plumed battle of the waves",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And fight old Proteus for the spoil of coral-flowered caves!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O for Medea with her poppied spell!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O for the secret of the Colchian shrine!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "O for one leaf of that pale asphodel",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which binds the tired brows of Proserpine,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And sheds such wondrous dews at eve that she",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dreams of the fields of Enna, by the far Sicilian sea,",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Where oft the golden-girdled bee she chased",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From lily to lily on the level mead,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Ere yet her sombre Lord had bid her taste",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The deadly fruit of that pomegranate seed,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Ere the black steeds had harried her away",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Down to the faint and flowerless land, the sick and sunless day.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O for one midnight and as paramour",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Venus of the little Melian farm!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "O that some antique statue for one hour",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Might wake to passion, and that I could charm",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The Dawn at Florence from its dumb despair,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mix with those mighty limbs and make that giant breast my lair!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Sing on! sing on! I would be drunk with life,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Drunk with the trampled vintage of my youth,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I would forget the wearying wasted strife,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The riven veil, the Gorgon eyes of Truth,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The prayerless vigil and the cry for prayer,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The barren gifts, the lifted arms, the dull insensate air!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Sing on! sing on! O feathered Niobe,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou canst make sorrow beautiful, and steal",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "From joy its sweetest music, not as we",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who by dead voiceless silence strive to heal",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Our too untented wounds, and do but keep",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pain barricadoed in our hearts, and murder pillowed sleep.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Sing louder yet, why must I still behold",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The wan white face of that deserted Christ,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Whose bleeding hands my hands did once enfold,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whose smitten lips my lips so oft have kissed,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And now in mute and marble misery",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sits in his lone dishonoured House and weeps, perchance for me?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O Memory cast down thy wreathèd shell!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Break thy hoarse lute O sad Melpomene!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "O Sorrow, Sorrow keep thy cloistered cell",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor dim with tears this limpid Castaly!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Cease, Philomel, thou dost the forest wrong",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To vex its sylvan quiet with such wild impassioned song!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Cease, cease, or if ’tis anguish to be dumb",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Take from the pastoral thrush her simpler air,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Whose jocund carelessness doth more become",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This English woodland than thy keen despair,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Ah! cease and let the north wind bear thy lay",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Back to the rocky hills of Thrace, the stormy Daulian bay.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "A moment more, the startled leaves had stirred,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Endymion would have passed across the mead",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Moonstruck with love, and this still Thames had heard",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pan plash and paddle groping for some reed",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To lure from her blue cave that Naiad maid",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who for such piping listens half in joy and half afraid.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "A moment more, the waking dove had cooed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The silver daughter of the silver sea",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With the fond gyves of clinging hands had wooed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her wanton from the chase, and Dryope",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Had thrust aside the branches of her oak",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To see the lusty gold-haired lad rein in his snorting yoke.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "A moment more, the trees had stooped to kiss",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pale Daphne just awakening from the swoon",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Of tremulous laurels, lonely Salmacis",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Had bared his barren beauty to the moon,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And through the vale with sad voluptuous smile",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Antinous had wandered, the red lotus of the Nile",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Down leaning from his black and clustering hair,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To shade those slumberous eyelids’ caverned bliss,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Or else on yonder grassy slope with bare",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "High-tuniced limbs unravished Artemis",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Had bade her hounds give tongue, and roused the deer",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From his green ambuscade with shrill halloo and pricking spear.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Lie still, lie still, O passionate heart, lie still!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O Melancholy, fold thy raven wing!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "O sobbing Dryad, from thy hollow hill",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Come not with such despondent answering!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "No more thou wingèd Marsyas complain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Apollo loveth not to hear such troubled songs of pain!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "It was a dream, the glade is tenantless,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No soft Ionian laughter moves the air,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The Thames creeps on in sluggish leadenness,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And from the copse left desolate and bare",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Fled is young Bacchus with his revelry,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet still from Nuneham wood there comes that thrilling melody",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "So sad, that one might think a human heart",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Brake in each separate note, a quality",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Which music sometimes has, being the Art",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which is most nigh to tears and memory,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Poor mourning Philomel, what dost thou fear?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy sister doth not haunt these fields, Pandion is not here,",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Here is no cruel Lord with murderous blade,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No woven web of bloody heraldries,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But mossy dells for roving comrades made,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Warm valleys where the tired student lies",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With half-shut book, and many a winding walk",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where rustic lovers stray at eve in happy simple talk.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The harmless rabbit gambols with its young",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Across the trampled towing-path, where late",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A troop of laughing boys in jostling throng",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Cheered with their noisy cries the racing eight;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The gossamer, with ravelled silver threads,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Works at its little loom, and from the dusky red-eaved sheds",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Of the lone Farm a flickering light shines out",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where the swinked shepherd drives his bleating flock",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Back to their wattled sheep-cotes, a faint shout",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Comes from some Oxford boat at Sandford lock,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And starts the moor-hen from the sedgy rill,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the dim lengthening shadows flit like swallows up the hill.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The heron passes homeward to the mere,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The blue mist creeps among the shivering trees,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Gold world by world the silent stars appear,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And like a blossom blown before the breeze",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A white moon drifts across the shimmering sky,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mute arbitress of all thy sad, thy rapturous threnody.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "She does not heed thee, wherefore should she heed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She knows Endymion is not far away,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "’Tis I, ’tis I, whose soul is as the reed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which has no message of its own to play,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "So pipes another’s bidding, it is I,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Drifting with every wind on the wide sea of misery.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Ah! the brown bird has ceased: one exquisite trill",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "About the sombre woodland seems to cling",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Dying in music, else the air is still,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So still that one might hear the bat’s small wing",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Wander and wheel above the pines, or tell",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Each tiny dew-drop dripping from the bluebell’s brimming cell.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And far away across the lengthening wold,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Across the willowy flats and thickets brown,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Magdalen’s tall tower tipped with tremulous gold",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Marks the long High Street of the little town,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And warns me to return; I must not wait,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hark! ’tis the curfew booming from the bell at Christ Church gate.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}