{
 "id": "robert-louis-stevenson/nest-eggs",
 "title": "Nest Eggs",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Robert Louis Stevenson",
 "poet_slug": "robert-louis-stevenson",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "A Child's Garden of Verses",
 "book_slug": "childs-garden-of-verses",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 49,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1885,
  "venue": "A Child's Garden of Verses (1885)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/achildsgardenve04stevgoog"
  ]
 },
 "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": 32,
  "n_stanzas": 8,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 30,
  "max_indent": 1
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Birds all the sunny day",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Flutter and quarrel,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Here in the arbour-like",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Tent of the laurel.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Here in the fork",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The brown nest is seated;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Four little blue eggs",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The mother keeps heated.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "While we stand watching her,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Staring like gabies,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Safe in each egg are the",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bird’s little babies.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Soon the frail eggs they shall",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Chip, and upspringing",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Make all the April woods",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Merry with singing.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Younger than we are,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O children, and frailer,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Soon in blue air they’ll be,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Singer and sailor.",
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   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "We, so much older,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Taller and stronger,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "We shall look down on the",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Birdies no longer.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "They shall go flying",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With musical speeches",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "High overhead in the",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Tops of the beeches.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "In spite of our wisdom",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And sensible talking,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "We on our feet must go",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Plodding and walking.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}