{
 "id": "robert-louis-stevenson/et-tu-in-arcadia-vixisti",
 "title": "Et Tu in Arcadia Vixisti",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": "(To R. A. M. S.)",
 "poet": "Robert Louis Stevenson",
 "poet_slug": "robert-louis-stevenson",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Underwoods",
 "book_slug": "underwoods",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 15,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1887,
  "venue": "Underwoods (1887)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/underwoods00stevrich"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/robert-louis-stevenson_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://archive.org/details/worksofrobertlvol28stev",
   "https://archive.org/details/worksofrobertlou14stev",
   "https://archive.org/details/newpoemsandvaria00stevuoft",
   "https://archive.org/details/poemshithertounp00stevrich",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/31291",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/30659",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/441",
   "https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Poems,_by_Robert_Louis_Stevenson,_hitherto_unpublished"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 75,
  "n_stanzas": 5,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 53,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "In ancient tales, O friend, thy spirit dwelt;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There, from of old, thy childhood passed; and there",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "High expectation, high delights and deeds,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy fluttering heart with hope and terror moved.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And thou hast heard of yore the Blatant Beast,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And Roland’s horn, and that war-scattering shout",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of all-unarmed Achilles, aegis-crowned.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And perilous lands thou sawest, sounding shores",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And seas and forests drear, island and dale",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And mountain dark. For thou with Tristram rod’st",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or Bedevere, in farthest Lyonesse.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou hadst a booth in Samarkand, whereat",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Side-looking Magians trafficked; thence, by night,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "An Afreet snatched thee, and with wings upbore",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Beyond the Aral Mount; or, hoping gain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou, with a jar of money, didst embark",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For Balsorah by sea. But chiefly thou",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In that clear air took’st life; in Arcady",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The haunted, land of song; and by the wells",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where most the gods frequent. There Chiron old,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the Pelethronian antre, taught thee lore;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The plants he taught, and by the shining stars",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In forests dim to steer. There hast thou seen",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Immortal Pan dance secret in a glade,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And, dancing, roll his eyes; these, where they fell,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shed glee, and through the congregated oaks",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A flying horror winged; while all the earth",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To the god’s pregnant footing thrilled within.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or whiles, beside the sobbing stream, he breathed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In his clutched pipe unformed and wizard strains",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Divine yet brutal; which the forest heard,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And thou, with awe; and far upon the plain",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The unthinking ploughman started and gave ear.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Now things there are that, upon him who sees,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A strong vocation lay; and strains there are",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That whoso hears shall hear forevermore.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Forevermore thou hear’st immortal Pan",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And those melodious godheads, ever young",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And ever quiring, on the mountains old.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "What was this earth, child of the gods, to thee?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Forth from thy dreamland thou, a dreamer, cam’st",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And in thine ears the olden music rang,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And in thy mind the doings of the dead,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And those heroic ages long forgot.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To a so fallen earth, alas! too late,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Alas! in evil days, thy steps return,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To list at noon for nightingales, to grow",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A dweller on the beach till Argo come",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That came long since, a lingerer by the pool",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where that desirèd angel bathes no more.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "As when the Indian to Dakota comes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or farthest Idaho, and where he dwelt,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He with his clan, a humming city finds;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thereon a while, amazed, he stares, and then",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To right and leftward, like a questing dog,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Seeks first the ancestral altars, then the hearth",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Long cold with rains, and where old terror lodged,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And where the dead: so thee undying Hope,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With all her pack, hunts screaming through the years:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Here, there, thou fleeëst; but nor here nor there",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The pleasant gods abide, the glory dwells.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "That, that was not Apollo, not the god.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This was not Venus, though she Venus seemed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A moment. And though fair yon river move,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She, all the way, from disenchanted fount",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To seas unhallowed runs; the gods forsook",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Long since her trembling rushes; from her plains",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Disconsolate, long since adventure fled;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And now although the inviting river flows,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And every poplared cape, and every bend",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or willowy islet, win upon thy soul",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And to thy hopeful shallop whisper speed;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet hope not thou at all; hope is no more;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And O, long since the golden groves are dead",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The faëry cities vanished from the land!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}