{
 "id": "robert-louis-stevenson/it-is-not-yours-o-mother-to-complain",
 "title": "It Is Not Yours, O Mother, to Complain",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Robert Louis Stevenson",
 "poet_slug": "robert-louis-stevenson",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Underwoods",
 "book_slug": "underwoods",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 25,
 "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": 40,
  "n_stanzas": 8,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 57,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "It is not yours, O mother, to complain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not, mother, yours to weep,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though nevermore your son again",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shall to your bosom creep,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though nevermore again you watch your baby sleep.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Though in the greener paths of earth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mother and child, no more",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We wander; and no more the birth",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of me whom once you bore",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Seems still the brave reward that once it seemed of yore;",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Though as all passes, day and night,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The seasons and the years,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From you, O mother, this delight,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This also disappears⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Some profit yet survives of all your pangs and tears.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The child, the seed, the grain of corn,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The acorn on the hill,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Each for some separate end is born",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In season fit, and still",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Each must in strength arise to work the almighty will.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "So from the hearth the children flee,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By that almighty hand",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Austerely led; so one by sea",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Goes forth, and one by land;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor aught of all man’s sons escapes from that command.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "So from the sally each obeys",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The unseen almighty nod;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So till the ending all their ways",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Blindfolded loth have trod:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor knew their task at all, but were the tools of God.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And as the fervent smith of yore",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Beat out the glowing blade,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor wielded in the front of war",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The weapons that he made,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But in the tower at home still plied his ringing trade;",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "So like a sword the son shall roam",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On nobler missions sent;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And as the smith remained at home",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In peaceful turret pent,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So sits the while at home the mother well content.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}