{
 "id": "robert-louis-stevenson/our-lady-of-the-snows",
 "title": "Our Lady of the Snows",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Robert Louis Stevenson",
 "poet_slug": "robert-louis-stevenson",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Underwoods",
 "book_slug": "underwoods",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 23,
 "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": 76,
  "n_stanzas": 6,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 41,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Out of the sun, out of the blast,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Out of the world, alone I passed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Across the moor and through the wood",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To where the monastery stood.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There neither lute nor breathing fife,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor rumour of the world of life,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor confidences low and dear,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shall strike the meditative ear.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Aloof, unhelpful, and unkind,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The prisoners of the iron mind,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where nothing speaks except the bell,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The unfraternal brothers dwell.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Poor passionate men, still clothed afresh",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With agonising folds of flesh;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whom the clear eyes solicit still",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To some bold output of the will,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While fairy Fancy far before",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And musing Memory-Hold-the-door",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Now to heroic death invite",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And now uncurtain fresh delight:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O, little boots it thus to dwell",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On the remote unneighboured hill!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O to be up and doing, O",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Unfearing and unshamed to go",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In all the uproar and the press",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "About my human business!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My undissuaded heart I hear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whisper courage in my ear.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With voiceless calls, the ancient earth",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Summons me to a daily birth.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou, O my love, ye, O my friends⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The gist of life, the end of ends⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To laugh, to love, to live, to die,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ye call me by the ear and eye!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Forth from the casemate, on the plain",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where honour has the world to gain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pour forth and bravely do your part,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O knights of the unshielded heart!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Forth and forever forward!⁠—out",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From prudent turret and redoubt,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And in the mellay charge amain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To fall but yet to rise again!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Captive? ah, still, to honour bright,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A captive soldier of the right!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or free and fighting, good with ill?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Unconquering but unconquered still!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And ye, O brethren, what if God,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When from Heav’n’s top He spies abroad,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And sees on this tormented stage",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The noble war of mankind rage:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What if His vivifying eye,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O monks, should pass your corner by?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For still the Lord is Lord of might;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In deeds, in deeds, He takes delight;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The plough, the spear, the laden barks,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The field, the founded city, marks;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He marks the smiler of the streets,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The singer upon garden seats;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He sees the climber in the rocks:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To Him, the shepherd folds his flocks.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For those He loves that underprop",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With daily virtues Heaven’s top,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And bear the falling sky with ease,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Unfrowning caryatides.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Those He approves that ply the trade,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That rock the child, that wed the maid,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That with weak virtues, weaker hands,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sow gladness on the peopled lands.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And still with laughter, song and shout,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Spin the great wheel of earth about.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But ye?⁠—O ye who linger still",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Here in your fortress on the hill,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With placid face, with tranquil breath,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The unsought volunteers of death,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Our cheerful General on high",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With careless looks may pass you by.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}